Frozen Fire: Waterbender
by Qwerky Qity
Summary: AU: In another world, Azula was a prodigious bender. Just not a prodigious firebender.
1. The Boy in the Iceberg

**Title: **Frozen Fire: Waterbender

**Author: **Qwerky Qity

**Rating: **T

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

**Summary: **In another world, Azula was a prodigious bender. Just not a prodigious firebender.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1: The Boy in the Iceberg<strong>

_Zuko was in the courtyard, sparring with their father. Orange fire streamed as he kicked out, the edges flaring white with head._

_Azula watched with round, envious eyes next to their mother, chubby legs swinging absently. "Mom, will I ever be as good a firebender as Zuzu?"_

_Ursa chuckled. "Of course, darling. You'll be the best firebender ever."_

_Azula didn't seem pleased. If anything, she wilted under her mother's words. "But I haven't firebent at all yet. And I'm five already. Even Zuzu was firebending by five." She bit her lip. "Father says—"_

"_Don't worry about what your father says. You'll be a firebender." Ursa sounded confident, and her tone reached her young daughter, who looked up hopefully._

"_Promise?"_

"_I promise. You'll be the greatest bender in the world, Azula."_

The greatest bender in the world, Mother had said. Just another broken promise.

Azula sat in the canoe as her brother paddled. And prattled. "Remind me," she sighed, "what are we doing here again?"

"We're fishing, 'Zula. Come on, must you be bored with _everything_?"

"And we couldn't have just done that without spending hours on an end on this spirits-forsaken boat?" Azula looked away from her stupid brother. Not that there was much to see-just ice and freezing water.

Wait. Was that iceberg _glowing_?

Sokka was still talking. "Well, it's sort of hard to catch fish. And they're all spread out, so we need to—"

"Do we really need to go _this _far?"

"Well, we do need to help; you know, since Dad left me in charge…" Her idiot brother trailed off. "Are you getting tired, 'Zula? If you don't want to continue—"

"Shut up."

She _hated_ being treated as helpless. It reminded her of…not that. Don't think of that.

Her hands trembled as she tightened them, the pale crisscross scars visible as the skin contracted. The tides began to roll back and forth harder, occasionally forming tiny tidal waves.

A burst of water suddenly splashed her brother in the face. He yelped as he fell back, and the canoe nearly capsized. "What was that?"

It wasn't the only burst of water. The waves had grown larger.

Oh no, oh no, oh no…Azula was panicking, her hands shaking even harder. Suddenly, her sight was caught by a glimmer of light.

"What's that?" The light was growing stronger. The iceberg was practically illuminating the entire area, a strong glowing beam surging up into the sky.

"What? Wait—what is that piece of ice doing?" Cracks had appeared, as if the light was forcing the ice apart. The thing was literally breaking apart. "Maybe we should just leave this pl—"

Sokka was cut off for the second time in the day by the huge explosion that followed.

* * *

><p>"Huh? Where am I?" Aang opened his eyes blearily. The last thing he remembered was the lightning in the terrible storm as he rushed away from the Southern Air Temple.<p>

The storm was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, he saw two people, both a little older than he was. The boy was obviously a Water Tribesman. He was rushing over the pieces of what looked like a boat. "My canoe!" he wailed. "Noooo!"

"Grow up, Sokka." Aang turned his attention to the girl, who at the same time turned to look at him, walking over a few steps.

He noticed that she hid her hands in the thick winter parka as she strode over.

"I have something to ask you," he croaked weakly to the girl. She leaned forward. "Will you go penguin sledding with me?"

"Maybe…but first tell me your name." Her lips twisted slightly at she looked at him. In distaste?

"I-I'm Aang." He scratched his head nervously. "I was running away from the Southern Air Temple, and then I sort of got stuck in a storm and then I just found myself—"

"You don't need to repeat your whole life story to me." Azula's eyes narrowed as she caught sight of his arrow tattoos. "Are you an _air_bender?"

"Of course he isn't!" Sokka, it seemed, had gotten over his grief over his canoe and was shaking his finger at Aang. "You're a Fire Nation spy. Airbenders haven't been seen for over a hundred years."

"What? I just saw them yesterday! I lived with them!"

Whatever Sokka was going to say next was cut off by a giant pile of snot blown at him from the beast that rose behind the airbender—Aang, she corrected herself. Always use the given name, unless it offends the person, even if it might be false. Azula stifled a laugh at his predicament. And his predictable response: "Eww…giant beasty snot."

"Appa!" The airbender—Aang—turned happily to the thing. "Are you okay? Did you catch a cold from being the ice?"

"Is that a sky bison?"

"No, it's a snot bison!"

Azula ignored Sokka's attempt at humor. "Is it?"

"Yup. This is my best friend Appa. C'mon buddy. Let's get out of this giant ice ball. Hey," he turned back to Azula and Sokka, "if you guys need a ride home—'cause your canoe is smashed—Appa can take you there."

Azula weighed the pros and cons. "Why not."

"Why not? That thing's disgusting! I'm not going anywhere near that snot beast! It's—" The "snot beast" apparently didn't appreciate its new nickname, which it made clear by snorting loudly at Sokka. "Okay. All aboard the sky bison. Nice sky bison."

Aang grinned.

The threesome climbed atop the giant bison. Aang clambered onto its furry head, holding what appeared to be reins, tied to the creature's horns.

"Does this thing even fly?" Sokka muttered. "I mean, look at how huge it is. It probably has more fur than the South Pole has snow."

"Course it flies." Aang looked at him indignantly. "Yip, yip, Appa." The bison lowed and leapt into the sky, but quickly sank back down. "Appa? Yip, yip, boy." The bison lowed again.

"So the thing can't fly. I knew it."

Azula gave an exasperated glance at her brother.

"Appa's just tired," Aang defended. "He'll fly later. I'll show you."

"So, Aang," Azula turned to the airbender, "you came from the Southern Air Temple."

"Yup."

"Then, have you ever, say, met the Avatar?"

Aang froze. "What? The Avatar? No. I mean, I know people who know him, but I've never met him myself. I mean, he didn't live where I did."

"Alright then." She leaned back in her seat, but Aang wasn't completely sure she believed him.

Aang snuck a look at Azula. She was pretty, with pale skin, dark hair, slanted gold eyes—firebender eyes, like his friend Kuzon. "Are you a good firebender?" he blurted out. Maybe she could firebend with him when he found a firebending teacher. Maybe they'd even see Kuzon and all three of them could firebend together.

She stiffened, her shoulders drawing together as she subconsciously tightened into a ball. "I can't firebend."

"Oh." For a moment, awkward silence reigned. "I thought you could. You look Fire Nation."

Azula did not reply, averting her golden gaze from the other two people on the bison for the rest of the trip.

* * *

><p>Nobody said anything until they reached the village. Sokka did spend the rest of the time glaring at the "airbender" though, which obviously made Aang very uncomfortable. He opened his mouth several times, but didn't manage to get anything out before being cowed into submission by the other boy's threatening glares.<p>

Not to mention the firebending girl named Azula turned out to not be a firebender at all. Kuzon had told him that golden eyes meant firebender, especially for nobility. Aang couldn't contemplate that idea that an obviously Fire Nation girl, maybe even _nobility_, like Kuzon had been, was not. Many things puzzled Aang, like why firebenders were aggressive when fire was supposed to warm and comforting, and why Ba Sing Se was divided by wealth, but this seemed like it belonged with Monk Gyatso's weird wonders of the world.

"Gran Gran!" Sokka jumped off the bison to greet an old woman who looked, well, old. _Very_ old. "Sokka." The corners of her eyes crinkled as she smiled at her grandson. Next, she turned to Azula, who'd been _very_ quiet since his question, and hugged the girl. "Azula. You're back."

Then she looked at him. "And who are you, young man?" Her tone was kind of stern but her eyes twinkled kindly.

Aang laughed nervously. "I'm Aang. I'm an airbender. Sokka and Azula found me in an iceberg, and since I sorta wrecked their canoe, I had Appa fly them back. Or swim them back. Appa's a little tired." He patted Appa's head comfortingly..

The old woman smiled at him. "And I'm Gran Gran, Sokka and Azula's grandmother. How do you do, Aang?"

"Uh…I'm fine I guess. Except everyone keeps saying that they haven't seen airbenders in a century."

"Of course they haven't, young Aang." Her voice softened, as she seemed to consider how best to finish the conversation.

Azula, on the other hand, turned to look at him again, this time straight in the eye, as if she was trying to stare him down. "One hundred years ago, Fire Nation soldiers under Fire Lord Sozin invaded the Air Temples under Fire Lord Sozin and destroyed them all. Every last man, woman, and child."

"WHAT!"

* * *

><p>Aang numbly stood at the edge of the village.<p>

He couldn't believe that he had been gone for a hundred years in an iceberg. A hundred years!

And there was more.

The Air Nomads, all of them, every one of his people, were gone. From what Gran Gran hinted at, trying to break the news gently, even the sky bison and the flying lemurs were never seen anymore.

Could they be all gone? Aang couldn't believe it. Could the Fire Nation have killed all of his people?

How could that happen? The Air Temples were atop the highest mountains; only sky bison could get there. Not even dragons were able to go to there; the climate was too cold for the original firebenders.

How did the Fire Nation attack?

* * *

><p>Azula looked at the airbender, shaking slightly as he stood.<p>

To realize that your world had just been turned upside down, that your family and your friends were gone, that things would never return to what they had been before was painful. Besides, it was better that he learned this now, instead of later. The truth hits harder when you see the evidence for yourself.

She had good cause to know.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, across a length of sea, a young, unlucky lieutenant who was the one who been chosen to deliver the news after his more-experienced comrades all turned on him, hurried to report to his master. "Your Highness, we've spotted something." He dropped into a bow, fearful to get up.<p>

"Oh?" The master turned around, revealing glimmering golden eyes that shone bright in the dark room—firebender eyes, just like Azula's.

"Yes. It looked like a beam of light. It came from over there." The young soldier pointed in a direction.

The man smirked and took a step forward, causing the soldier to flinch. "Very well, then. Let us go over 'there' and see what we find." The soldier nodded, bowed, and ran off as if he couldn't get away quickly enough.

"Soon," he murmured to himself. "I have waited many years to redeem myself and my honor, but I think my wait is at end.

"It seems that we are to meet again. And this time, you will not escape."

* * *

><p>Aang and Appa were flying right over the large, ice-glazed ocean, the storm crackling and falling around them. Lightning streaked across the sky, as the rain pelted the two. "C'mon, Appa." He muttered. "Faster, boy."<p>

Suddenly the storm stopped. Aang looked up. "Monk Gyatso?" The elderly monk was sitting right in front of him. Behind Gyatso were hundreds, thousands, of other airbenders. "What are you all doing here?" Aang reached out in front of him.

Suddenly, Gyatso disappeared in a burst of fire. The young Avatar cried out in surprise. "What's going on?"

They were all disappearing. The monks, the nuns, the children were, one by one, collapsing into smoke.

"No! Come back! NO!" Aang's cries were drowned out as he fell from Appa, sinking deep beneath the cold ocean waves…

* * *

><p>"Alright, men." Sokka strode importantly in front of a collection of seven or eight toddlers. "While our fathers are fighting the war in the Earth Kingdom, we must form our own army to protect this village against the Fire Nation. Today, I will teach you the important skill of fort-building. Any questions?"<p>

A boy near the front raised his hand. "I have to pee."

Sokka glared. "We are soldiers—we are men! We do not take time off to pee."

"But I have to pee too." A second boy spoke up.

"So do I, so do I!"

Sokka sighed as all the little boys began clamoring at once. "Fine. We'll have _one_ ten-minute potty break. But come back!" He shouted as the children, shouting joyously, all ran away. "Ugh, they're not coming back, are they?"

"I'd say no." An amused drawl sounded behind him.

"Azula." Sokka turned dejectedly to his sister. Suddenly he looked up. "Why don't you talk to them? They always listen to you."

Azula laughed lightly. "I think it more…amusing to see you attempting to train children. Children don't make good fighters." She added bitterly.

Sokka hesitated as he heard his sister's tone. That was not good. "Where Aang?" He changed the subject.

"Our resident airbender is melting into a pile of self-pity after hearing that his people are all gone." Sokka's voice was sympathetic, but Azula understood. They both had lost just as much as the airbender in this war.

"Why don't you help him snap out of it?"

"Help him?" She snorted. "I'm the one who _told_ him that they were all dead, and as Gran Gran said, not exactly very gently either."

"Yeah. But you promised to go penguin-sledding with him, didn't you?"

"Maybe."

"Well, if you go penguin sledding, you guys can be happy and play in the snow and stuff. And he'll forgive you. He doesn't seem to be mad at _you_, anyways."

Azula tilted her head, her slanted golden eyes glinting. This was a chance she might not find again…"I guess that's a good idea. Better than listening to him mope anyways."

"Alrighty then." Sokka smiled.

* * *

><p>"Aang."<p>

Aang turned around, and his shoulders had a definite slump they lacked the day before. "Oh hi Azula. What are you here for? Do you need something?"

"I remember I promised to go penguin sledding with you." Aang noticed that Azula held a couple of fish in one mitten. "Let's go."

"Alright." Aang bounced up on a gust of air that swirled tiny snowflakes like a miniature tornado.

"Now, the trick is to—"

Azula sighed irritably as Aang tried to grab yet another penguin-seal, nearly falling over. The little creatures, while small and seemingly clumsy, were actually quite versatile and very slippery. _Harder than holding on to a greased penguin-seal_, the saying went.

"Aang! Listen!" The boy snapped to attention. "First, you feed them the fish." Azula took her fish and held it out to a good-sized penguin-seal, who sniffed it before snatching it to eat. She made sure he had mimicked her action, before proceeding. "Then…" She grabbed the penguin, and began sledding down the snowy hill.

The freezing wind slapped pas her face as she slid down on the penguin's back. To her left, she heard Aang's joyful laughter, and was surprised at how nice it was to hear him act as happy and careless as he had been when he first came out of the iceberg.

She shook her head to clear away these thoughts. She couldn't be trying to keep him happy, not when he was—_might_ _be_, she reminded herself, _might be_ so you won't be too disappointed if he isn't—the Avatar.

The Avatar was her only chance.

"Hey, 'Zula!" she heard him scream, grinning at her, "Let's race!"

She found herself smiling back fiercely. "You're on!"

And for a few minutes, Azula let down her guard and acted like a regular fourteen-year-old girl. She guided the penguin down, sneaking a glance at Aang that revealed that she was several feet ahead.

Suddenly, the sight in front of her made her stop the penguin in its tracks. It squealed, startled, and jerked, causing Azula to slip off, falling onto her knees as she stared ahead.

_A large, iron ship that was docked by the port…armored soldiers carrying a box that was larger than she was…the moans as the battleship finally, _finally_ left port…so much blood, so much blood…and then—_

"Zula? Zula? AZULA!" Azula was forced out of her reminisces by Aang's shout.

"Are you okay? You look so pale." He was kneeling down too, looking at her, large gray eyes wide with worry.

"I'm fine," she snapped. "Let's go back."

Aang stared at her retreating figure, and wondered exactly what she saw in the Fire Nation battleship that frightened her so much.


	2. The Avatar Returns

**Title: **Frozen Fire: Waterbender

**Author: **Qwerky Qity

**Rating: **T

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

**Summary: **In another world, Azula was a prodigious bender. Just not a prodigious firebender.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2: The Avatar Returns<strong>

Aang ate breakfast with the Water Tribesmen. They had some sort of gooey, oily black stuff with lumps in it had had turned Aang's stomach—not the least because it was made from penguin-seal fat. The thought of consuming flesh made Aang sick, so he had just picked at the pieces of dried seaweed instead. Poor Appa barely ate anything either, since almost no vegetation grew in the icy South Pole.

Sokka, though, had no such reservations. "Yum! Penguin-seal stew with sea-prunes!" he had cried happily as he dug in in a way that would astonish a cow-pig, shoveling the stomach-turning food in an even more stomach-turning way. It was even worse than watching him eat the seal jerky last evening.

"How does he do that?" Aang whispered to Azula, who was sitting next to him. "Won't he choke?"

Azula snorted—or gave a sound that passed as a snort for her. "You'll get used to it." She herself did not seem particularly hungry—or was it just yesterday's experience? She prodded a sea-prune with her stone spoon, looked up, and paled. "Sokka! Look."

But Sokka had already stood up, looking particularly grim, while the other villagers were gathered their children, looking frightened as they stared at the sky. When Aang looked up, curious to see what had caused such a reaction, all he saw was snow falling. Gray snow.

"What's going on? Why is the snow gray?" Aang asked. He looked around, but everyone was still panicked.

"It's not snow." Azula's face was as grim as Sokka's, and the faint scars across her left cheek became more visible as her face paled. "It's soot. The Fire Nation's coming."

* * *

><p>Oh <em>Agni<em>, how did the Fire Nation find her again? Azula wasn't entirely sure how they had discovered this tiny, obscure village. Something must have happened—probably that jet of light that came out when Aang's iceberg cracked. And more importantly, who was coming? If it was just a couple of regular soldiers, that would be much of a problem, but if it was—

"Azula."

Gran-Gran looked as serene as she did the day before when they had not realized they were in danger. Her tranquility forced Azula to calm down. Here was a woman who had lost and suffered as much as Azula herself had, who was practically a century older, but who faced danger with less panic than a young girl who was much more capable of defending herself.

"Yes, Gran-Gran?"

"He is the Avatar."

Well, that confirmed her suspicions. When Gran-Gran said something, she was very seldom wrong.

"Is that supposed to help us? He's still only a boy; I doubt he can even waterbend."

Gran-Gran sighed. "I hoped this day would not come for some time, but it seems it has. Half a century ago, a fortuneteller predicted this event. You see, your destiny, and Sokka's destiny, is intertwined with Avatar's. No matter what happens, you must go with him today."

Azula didn't know what to say to this, but she was fairly sure that her face was missing its usual carefully-neutral mask.

* * *

><p>Sokka had applied the traditional warrior's facepaint, and was holding his boomerang. To an outsider, he looked ready, but Azula saw the nervous twitch in his face, the way his fingers were wrapped too tightly around his beloved boomerang. He was, after all, only one boy, and he was facing any number of firebenders.<p>

Azula shivered as another gust of cold wind blew by, bringing with it the low hum of a battleship. "Sokka…"

"What?" He turned to her.

"You know we can't win, right?"

Sokka sighed. He had given up after a token attempt to organize the younger boys, recognizing that they were too small to be of much use. "If the worst happens," he said somberly, "we've already moved the children and the women. Just go with Aang—and take care of Gran-Gran, alright?"

Aang had volunteered for Appa to transport the villagers to a safer location, and the others had agreed that that would be best. Unfortunately, Appa still refused to fly, and moving by water was slower than moving by air. Gran-Gran had left with the others, but Azula had stayed with Sokka—not only because of what Gran-Gran had told her, but also because this just felt right, as if some spiritual force was guiding her on her path.

They waited.

The hum of the ship became louder, and Azula was able to make out a faint outline coming through. The large iron hulk crushed the barrier of ice that Sokka had worked so hard, the heat melting the chunks into seawater. Finally, as the battleship docked, a ramp was lowered, and Azula heard footsteps echoing faintly against the metal steps. A group of soldiers first came out and spread into a semi-circle, followed by a tall, armored man who stood a few steps in front of the others.

Azula gasped as she saw his face.

Sokka gave a warrior's yell and charged the man before she could stop him, running with his club raised. The man easily caught his arm and knocked the weapon out of Sokka's hands, disarming him, while at the same time dealing a harsh blow to his legs. Azula heard her brother shout in surprise as the ice beneath his feet melted, and he sunk halfway into the pool before being forcefully stopped by the man's harsh grip on his wolf-tail. He thrashed and tried to attack the man with his boomerang, but the man dodged it as easily as he had dodged the attempt with the club, forcing Sokka to drop the boomerang onto the ice. Azula winced, and shrank further behind the block of ice she had used as a cover, shaking horribly.

The man's golden eyes narrowed angrily as he surveyed the empty village, noting the recent fires and igloos. He turned back to Sokka.

"I'll only ask once," the man murmured dangerously. "Where is she?"

Sokka spat in his face. "I don't know what you're talking out," he shouted defiantly. "Let me go, you firebender scum!"

The man gave a mock sigh, and raised his free hand, a flicker of flame dangerously hovering over his index finger. "Very well then. Any last words?"

Oh no. He would kill Sokka, and then scour the place and kill her and everyone else as well. Azula tightened her treacherously trembling hands. To even consider defeating him was folly, but maybe she could stall for time. Maybe…well, it was worth a try.

Gold met gold as Azula stepped out from her hiding place. She didn't say anything. She didn't have to.

The man gave a frightening smirk and dropped Sokka's wolf-tail. Azula heard him yelp as he fell completely into the water. Hopefully, if Sokka had any common sense, he would stay under and try to find another opening that would be out of this man's sight.

He walked toward her, still smirking, but Azula bravely stood her ground. Keep still, she instructed herself. To show weakness to the tiger-wolf was the same as to beg it to eat you.

His smirk was threatening to split his face in half when he finally stopped.

"It seems that we meet again, daughter."

* * *

><p>"Azula? Sokka?" Aang called out into the silent, broken village. Appa was swimming as quickly as he could, but while Aang was very eager to find and help his new friends, he didn't want to leave Appa behind in such a cruel, cold land. As a result, he was forced to stay with his bison and to reach Sokka and Azula much later than he wanted.<p>

His heart dropped when he saw the remnants of the ice. So the ship had come before him.

A sudden movement at the edge of his vision startled Aang, and he saw a blue pile pull itself out of the water, sputtering. "Sokka!" Aang hurried over to help the older boy.

Sokka looked around desperately. "Where's Azula?" he demanded, grabbing his nearby boomerang and standing up. His face paint had smeared, giving him a grotesque look.

"I don't know," Aang replied defensively. "I only got here. What happened?"

Sokka ground his teeth together. "The firebenders came, and they took her," he spat out, clearly angry at both the firebenders and himself. "We need to go after them."

The fierce glint in his eye made Aang wonder what exactly Sokka was considering

* * *

><p>Azula found herself walking between two masked guards, her hands bound behind her back. Predictably, Ozai hadn't killed her, choosing to take her back to the Fire Nation. She sneered internally; as if that would help him regain his lost "honor." Everyone knew that the younger of Azulon's sons had no honor, and there had been very little love lost when he had been exiled.<p>

But back onto the matter at hand. Her only chance was to escape the ship before they actually arrived at the Fire Nation, preferably mostly uninjured. Unfortunately, she had no idea where they would dock next or where she would be kept, which severely limited her options of escape. Logically, a battleship this size would have a small life-raft or at least something she could escape on, but the possibly to actually acquiring and escaping on one was too small to depend on.

There were only two guards, which meant that either Ozai either believed that she was completely helpless, or that he deliberately did it so she would underestimate the enemy. Considering Ozai's personality, it was probably the former; he hadn't even bothered to check her for any weapons. Naturally, this meant that she could attack these two, hide them, and sneak off the ship. If she was lucky, Ozai wouldn't even realize it until she was far enough away.

Azula was just beginning to form her attack plan when they passed the empty boiler room. She could practically _feel_ the water, in the form of steam, gathering inside the place.

Well, it wasn't as if she would abandon a perfectly good opportunity.

Azula concentrated on condensing to the steam into water, which she willed to rise just as they passed the door. She felt it gather behind the second guard, and abruptly jerked her wrists upward. The water immediately obeyed her movements, forming a blade so clumsy that wouldn't have been her weapon of choice. But it worked, and she could hear the results as it cut through steel and flesh and bone.

Quickly, the other guard turned, alarmed by the thud of a body on the metal of the ship, but even as fire formed around his hands, Azula was already moving. She twisted in midair, ducking as she came down, and her heavy boots caught him in the stomach. The fireball went harmlessly over her head, but her blade of water smashed into the unfortunate, stumbling guard.

Azula easily cut her bindings with a tiny piece of ice, barely pausing before shoving the bodies into the boiler room and bolting the door.

Then, she ran.

* * *

><p>"Yip, yip, Appa!" Aang petted the bison's fur. "C'mon, buddy, we need to save Azula," he urged. "We need to hurry, or else we won't be able to catch her."<p>

The bison only lowed, and continued swimming.

"Can't you get him to move faster?" Sokka impatiently demanded from the saddle as he leaned forward. "What's your magic words again?"

"Yip, yip," Aang supplied helpfully.

"Well then…YIP, YIP you stupid beast!"

Sokka almost fell on his back when the bison turned its head to stare in the eye, but he bravely stared back. Then, surprisingly, Appa took to the skies.

"You're flying, buddy!" Aang shouted joyously.

"It's flying!" Sokka scrambled to get to the edge of the saddle, gasping as he saw the ground becoming farther and farther away. "It's actually flying!"

* * *

><p>Azula knew that she was in trouble when she felt a blast of fire graze her left leg. Luckily, the thick winter furs took the brunt of the blast. Still, the shock and heat made her stumble as she fell onto the unforgiving metal deck. Immediately, she rolled over out of instinct, and avoided a second blast that would have roasted her. She cursed as she saw Ozai leading half a dozen soldiers. His fist was still smoking.<p>

Seven-to-one odds weren't good, but she'd faced worse. The lessons from her childhood came to her, unbidden: _When you face an enemy stronger than you, do not take the blow head-on, but seek to separate his strength and wear him down, beginning with the weakest point_. Possibilities flashed through her mind for what seemed like hours between the time she dodged Ozai's third fire blast and the soldiers assumed fighting stances, though only a few seconds actually passed.

Having to avoid seven fireballs at once wasn't a particularly promising option, and potentially more if other soldiers came to fight alongside their compatriots—got to close that entrance-so she needed to incapacitate the firebenders quickly.

Azula reached down, beneath the ice, and tugged. An enormous tidal wave rose from the sea and crashed over onto the ship, drenching everyone, extinguishing Ozai enormous fire splice, and almost unbalancing the ship, which swayed horribly and succeeded in throwing overboard two of the firebenders who were too close to the edge; if the spirits were good, their thick armor would prevent them from surfacing before she managed to escape. Azula took advantage of the distraction to harden the water into ice, sealing off the door that led into the cabin and freezing another soldier in it. That left Ozai and the other three, who had gotten over their surprise to turn back to her.

In response, Azula willed another wave to appear, the water coalescing into sharp balls that sped towards the firebenders, managing to catch the three soldiers but missing Ozai, whose fire turned the water into steam. Her time was running out, if Ozai's expression was anything to go by.

At least if she was to die, she would know that she was going to die fighting. Then, just as she prepared to launch another assault, Azula heard a very welcome sound.

"Zula!"

Out of her peripheral vision, since she didn't dare remove her glance from Ozai for a second, Azula saw the giant sky bison with what seemed to be Aang and Sokka onboard. The bison lowed as it narrowly missed a fireball, but Aang unfurled his glider and flew down on deck between her and Ozai, whose eyes had widened in surprise, leaving him open to the gust of wind that knocked him onto his back.

For a moment, Azula was tempted to continue fighting and end this farce for once and for all, but she remembered Gran-Gran's words, and took Aang's outstretched hand as he flew them back to Appa.

* * *

><p>Ozai snarled angrily, drawing back his left arm to release the most enormous fireball he had that entire day at the beast that held the target he sought. The red-hot fire left his knuckles, soaring through the cold South Pole air. He smirked as he saw it just reach the beast's tail. He could imagine what would happen next: the beast, or at least its tail, would be badly burnt enough that it could no longer fly, allowing him to catch up and capture the three onboard.<p>

To his shock, the yellow-clothed bald boy—the airbender?—jump across the length of the creature and deflect the blast. Ozai only realized the extent of his misfortune when he saw the deflected fire crash into the nearby cliff—one made entirely of ice, ice that was quickly crashing down.

This was not going to be good.

* * *

><p>"You're the Avatar."<p>

Sokka snorted. "Zula, he's only an airbender; don't you think he would have something if he was the Avatar? Right?" His last question was posed at Aang. His voice was slightly venomous after Azula had explained that they couldn't return to the Tribe or else Ozai would only come again. They needed to lead him away from the Tribe.

Aang only looked down forlornly.

"What?" Sokka leaned forward to grab Aang's shoulder. He softened as he saw the younger boy's pained expression. "Why didn't you tell us? The world's been waiting for a hundred years."

"Because I never wanted to be the Avatar." Aang's voice was very small. "What you said about my people being wiped out…Sozin did that because of _me_. I heard the elders talking; he had already colonized part of the Earth Kingdom, and he wanted to kill the Avatar. They died because of me. Because I ran away."

Sokka looked like he wasn't sure what to say, and he had enough tact to stay silent in this situation. He looked at Azula as if asking her to do something.

She sighed silently, and moved so that she faced Aang. "Aang, what happened to the Air Nomads is not your fault. Firelord Sozin attacked brutally and quickly, and even if you were there, there would have been nothing you could do about it. Sozin and his firebenders took advantage of a comet's power to launch the attack. Even if you are the Avatar, you're only twelve, and not fully-realized. Besides, we're your family now, Sokka and I. We're sticking by you, no matter what."

Sokka nodded firmly, his Tribesman's loyalty to friends showing through. Azula was sure her brother was hesitant to leave the Tribe, but she'd tell him Gran-Gran's words later.

Aang smiled, uncertainly at first, but it grew. Airbenders were all like that: as flexible as the wind itself, ready to go anywhere and blow away anything in its way. He grabbed a map which was probably out of date, considering that it came from about a hundred years ago, but Aang didn't seem to realize that.

"Well then, since we're leaving the Pole anyway, I think we should take care of some important business." He jabbed at what appeared to be an island. "We'll first go here, to ride the hopping llamas. Then, here, to surf on giant koi fish. Then—"

"Shouldn't we go to the North Pole so you and him can master waterbending?" Sokka muttered to Azula.

"We have time," she murmurs back. "We have all the time in the world."

But as the bison moved farther and farther away from the icy lands that had been her home for the last four years, Azula couldn't help but feel that she was wrong.


	3. The Southern Air Temple

**Title: **Frozen Fire: Waterbender

**Author: **Qwerky Qity

**Rating: **T

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

**Summary: **In another world, Azula was a prodigious bender. Just not a prodigious firebender.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3: The Southern Air Temple<strong>

To Sokka's annoyance and Azula's nervousness, Aang has proposed and insisted upon a visit to his old home, the Southern Air Temple, before going anywhere else.

"Aang, think about it logically." Sokka was trying and failing to mask his impatience. "We need to end this war quickly, which means that you need to go to the Northern Water Tribe and master waterbending as quickly as possible. You can't just stop everywhere you want." He had barely managed to talk Aang out of flying stopping in the hills next to the Patola Mountain Range to ride the hopping llamas and was irritated because Aang still hung onto stubbornly to the idea of riding the giant koi near Kyoshi Island. There would be no point in visiting a removed island that was known for its fish—even if they were very delicious when made with native spices and sauces.

Aang's face was set in a frown. "But this isn't just anywhere. It's my home. Besides," he added optimistically, "I bet that there's living Air Nomads. The temples are built so high, only flying bison can get to them. The Fire Nation couldn't have killed all of my people. They couldn't have." He sounded like he was trying—and unfortunately succeeding—in convincing himself of the fact.

Had she been that type, Azula would have screamed in frustration. The closer they had gotten to the Southern Air Temple, the more positive Aang was that there were living airbenders. Seeing about the century-old deaths and hearing about it would be different, and Azula hardly wanted to subject the young boy to the sight of the century-old massacre. The Fire Nation had not cleaned up much after they had killed the airbenders, and even she herself had no desire to see the remains.

"Aang," she said, her voice quiet though sharp, "be sensible. Why would the Air Nomads remain at a Temple where they were killed or nearly killed? The Air Nomads were massacred a century ago." She ignored Aang's flinch. He needed to become accustomed to the harshness of the world if he was to have any chance of surviving it. "Even if there were survivors, they wouldn't return.

"Yeah," Sokka chimed in. "There's no point in going there."

However, Aang had stood surprisingly firm in the face of Sokka's arguments and Azula's distaste. Though she knew that Aang desperately wanted to visit the home of his people, Azula wasn't entirely sure she felt good about visiting a temple that had been essentially dead for a hundred years. For a moment, she wondered idly if there would be ghosts, the dead spirits of murdered airbenders. But Azula quickly dismissed this thought; by all accounts, the Air Nomads were a peaceful, passive people, and lacked the bitter vengefulness that anchored vicious ghosts in the physical world.

* * *

><p>The bustling harbor was filled with loud whistles and the smoggy air that always hovered about such places. Normally, Ozai would have been disgusted by the filthy commonness of the area and the crudeness of the peasants and fools that manned it, but today, he was focused on his task at hand, and fixing the ship was most important at the moment.<p>

"I want the repairs done as soon as possible." Ozai's voice was nothing more than a hiss, but the two bulky engineers in front of him nod attentively; from what he sees of their eyes behind the thick goggles, they are sufficiently intimidated by the ex-prince. "Now go." He waves his hand dismissively, and feels a flicker of satisfaction as the two practically run off to fix the ruined battleship.

Even if he has been robbed of his birthright and stripped of his honors, his blood and firebending prowess still commanded a kind of respect and fear in others, and it has been a long time since Ozai has had anyone to intimidate but the frightened crew. He had to admit, the feeling of power he had at the moment was exhilarating, though it would be nothing compared to what he could have once he captured the little brats that had tried to escape him. His thin lips curled into a faint smile at the corners when his good mood was suddenly interrupted by an oily voice.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't my old friend."

"Captain Zhao." Ozai's dislike for the man is hidden beneath his smooth mask as he turns around. He had known the man before his exile, but even then, had felt nothing but contempt. Zhao, Ozai thought derisviely, was nothing more than a slippery snake—good enough at firebending, and adept enough politically to avoid execution or discharge for bumbling up an assignment, but not someone who could ever be trusted with anything important. The man had a flair for the dramatic and an overgrown ego only rivaled by his ambition.

"_Commander_ Zhao, now." Zhao smirked. Ozai gritted his teeth at the lack of respect in Zhao's voice and redoubled his desire to see the man die slowly and painfully. "So what brings you to my harbor? I believe that the Firelord in his gracious mercy decreed that you are to be eternally banned from Fire Nation territory, has he not?"

Ozai clenches his fist behind his back. "The Firelord only exiled me from the homeland, Commander," he said without a hint of anger. "I can dock anywhere I please in the colonies. Besides, my ship needs repairing, as you can see."

Zhao raises his eyebrows as he surveys the ruined metal of the deck. "Quite of a bit damage, there. And here I was, thinking that you were merely exploring the Southern wasteland."

"An ice cliff crashed in my ship," Ozai replies smoothly. So this is what Zhao came for. Well, he would be disappointed; Ozai was not the type to keep his secrets in the open for any half-competent fool to discover.

Now, the idiot would probably invite Ozai for tea while probing his crew for information, Ozai thought irritably.

Ozai was proven correct by Zhao's next statement. "Did it now? You _must_ give me all the exciting details. Join me for a drink?"

"Of course," Ozai nodded curtly. Zhao was despicable, but he had a habit of boasting, and any information he could get about the homeland would be useful.

* * *

><p>It was long past dawn now, but the air was still frosty. Azula thought little of it now after her long stay in the freezing South Pole, but the high altitude was something that she was not yet entirely familiar with. They moved quickly, though part of the reason was that they spent as much time as they could in the air. Which meant that resting times, and meal times, were at a minimum.<p>

Across from Azula, Sokka gave another unconvincing moan. He clutched his stomach and looked at her hopefully. "I'm hungry," he groans. "I need food!"

"_No_, Sokka. You've had enough blubbered seal jerky for today." Aang had nearly lit the stuff on fire yesterday, claiming he thought it was just fuel when Sokka had pounced on him in mock (or perhaps it was real?) fury. As a result, her brother was trying to make up for it by eating twice his usual amount, and Azula had known Sokka long enough to know that even he couldn't handle that much jerky in his stomach at one time.

"We're almost there!" Aang shouts excitedly from Appa's head. "Look, there's the Patola Mountain Range beneath us." He didn't seem to realize that neither of the siblings were paying him much attention as he rubbed Appa's left ear affectionately. "We'll be home soon, buddy. You can make new friends; maybe there'll even be a nice female bison for you to play with."

Appa lowed happily. Aang gave a laugh of anticipation.

They continued on the journey with no other disturbances other than Sokka's occasional false moan of hunger. The sun appeared from the east and was almost in the middle of the sky when Aang suddenly reached over and shook Azula's arm. "There! See it? That's the Southern Air Temple."

"Where? I wanna see." Sokka gives up on his acting and shuffles to the front of the saddle. "Aang, that's amazing."

Azula silently agreed. The majestic arches and towers of the Air Temple, which was carved into the stone mountain peak, hinted at the skill of its creators, and made Azula uncomfortably aware of the power of airbending. But even from a distance, she could see the disuse of the abandoned temple—the overgrown grass and weeds in the courtyard, the cracks in the uninhabited stone towers, the mold and dirt that covered the entire place, visible even through the layer of snow.

Suddenly, Azula's breath caught as she glimpsed something the other two did not. What was it that had fluttered though the window?

* * *

><p>"...and by the end of the year, the Earth Kingdom's capital will be in our hands. The Firelord will finally claim victory!"<p>

Ozai touches the tips of his fingertips together and notes the absence of the plans to subjugate the Water Tribes—not that they were important in the grand scheme of themes, but Zhao wasn't stupid enough to overlook any gap. As Zhao turns to him expectantly, Ozai lifts his eyes from the map, where he was memorizing the latest military information, to meet Zhao's own gaze. "The Firelord has not planned the conquest of the Water Tribes?" he probes innocently. Zhao never could resist bragging.

"They will be no trouble," Zhao assures, looking more smug than ever. So he does know something, Ozai noted, something that the Firelord probably wouldn't approve of, if his reluctance to reveal it was a clue. "By the way," Zhao asks casually, "how is your search going?"

"As expected." Ozai leaves his answer open-ended purposely. No need to spill everything to this fool. He began to rise from his seat. "I believe that the repairs will be finished by now. I should be going; I have very little time to lose, and it will be more difficult to depart after sunset." Firebenders, after all, rose and fell with the sun, and it was normal for even non-benders to feel more lethargic in gloomy weather or at night.

Just then, an armored soldier walked in the tent, completely ignoring Ozai's presence, and whispered something to Zhao, who frowned at the news, though it seemed more of a frown of deep thinking than one of dissatisfaction. The soldier was dismissed; he bowed and left.

Zhao turned to Ozai, looking vaguely disappointed in a very unconvincing way; his eyes gleam with triumph, which is something that makes Ozai wary. Whatever Zhao found out that he believed to be good news for him was probably at Ozai's expense. "Good luck with your search, my prince," he drawls, giving a mocking bow as Ozai reaches the flaps of the tent.

"Thank you, Commander," Ozai murmurs as his mind races through the possibilities of what Zhao discovered. He had eliminated everyone who had seen his mistakes in the South Pole—hadn't he? Could someone have glimpsed something and sold him out to Zhao? But it wasn't like Zhao to try to hide anything, especially when he could call out Ozai to his face. So what could it be?

The only thing Ozai was sure right then of was that someone was going to be paying for this.

* * *

><p>Aang gave a laugh as he bounded off Appa with a gust of air catching his fall, and began to run up the steps five at a time. "Hurry up," he called to Azula and Sokka, who were barely off the bison.<p>

So speed was another advantage of being an airbender. The more Azula learned of the benefits of airbending, the more convinced she was that it had been their pacifism rather than their bending prowess that ultimately led to their demise, which in turn only reinforced her own belief that passivity in the face of force is an extremely bad idea.

As they hurried after Aang, Sokka exchanged looks with Azula. "So what do we do now?" he whispered. "Aang's not going to like what he sees."

Azula shrugged. "Watch and see, I suppose. He already knows about it; surely it can't be too harmful." Both know that she's lying. "We're already here, aren't we?"

The siblings catch up to Aang, who's hopping around a strange field that is full of poles. He gestures for them to join him. "This is where my friends and I used to play airball," he shouts at them. "C'mon. Let's play!"

Azula watched with a modicum of amusement as Sokka lost—badly—to the young airbender. Naturally, Sokka was at a disadvantage, being a non-bender, but that was no excuse. Ty Lee could have done much better. Even Mai wouldn't have been losing so badly…

No, don't think about that, Azula ordered herself, immediately banishing that line of thought from her mind. Instead, she focused back on the game that was happening in front of her.

The two were on opposite ends of the court, with Aang suspending a ball in the air with his bending. He tossed it a few times to test it, then, grinning, launched it up with a blast of air and swept it back down with a powerful air kick. The ball flew towards Sokka, whose concentrated expression she could clearly see even from the ground. Sokka ran to catch it, only for it to smash into his gut, throwing him backwards. Obviously, he had misjudged his momentum. Then, to add insult in injury, the ball—and Sokka—flew through the goal; the ball went through, but Sokka was stuck.

"Aang, nine; Sokka, zero!" Aang crowed as he did a little victory dance. Sokka was still groaning as he tried to get himself out of the goal.

"Ugh, can we stop this game now," Sokka brushed off the debris and snow that had gotten onto his clothes, patting to make sure nothing was broken. "I'm pretty sure I'm gonna lose anyway," he grumbled good-naturedly.

By the time Sokka had made sure that everything was alright and he hadn't sprained or hurt anything permanently, Aang was already bounding down from the posts, and shouting at them to follow. Suddenly, Azula caught sight of a flash of yellow robes creeping past her peripheral vision. Those robes most certainly did not belong to Aang, who was already several dozen feet ahead. She whipped her head to see the thing more clearly, but only saw a half-covered helmet—an old Fire Nation infantry helmet, she recognized with a jolt. This was one of the places the Fire Nation soldiers had attacked.

"Zula?" Sokka called from his position. He was a few feet in front of her, blue eyes growing anxious as they took in her paler than normal complexion.

"I'm coming," Azula forced out, turning away from the strange occurrence. She had been sure that something, or rather someone, was there.

* * *

><p>"Get out! Get out!" Prince Lu Ten angrily shouted at the prostrated servants, many of whom were sporting burns or scrapes and they scrambled to move out of their master's way. "I am your prince," he spat at them. "You cannot keep me in here." He tried to go to the locked doorway, but was halted by one foolishly brave servant desperately clutching his legs, refusing to let go even when Lu Ten kicked at him. "I'll have your head for this!" he promised.<p>

The servant trembled. "P-p-please, Your Highness," he stuttered. "I am under orders from your lord father. You are not allowed to leave this room unless he commands it."

Lu Ten was about to kick the pathetic man aside when the doors opened and Crown Prince Iroh strode in, closely followed by six Imperial guards and—of course—the Lady Mai. Iroh gestured for the guards and servants to move out of the room, and sat himself down in a chair that Lu Ten had not yet broken or reduced to ash.

Lu Ten bowed. "My lord father," he muttered, his resentment ill-concealed.

Iroh merely raised an eyebrow as he reached over to pick up the shards of a ruined teapot—the hideous one made of earth with a strange goat-like animal on the side Lu Ten had actually broken on purpose, not in a fit of rage—on the scorched table that had been a present from some colonel. "I see that you have been busy, Lu Ten." He sighed. "It is a pity that such a fine teapot is broken. A gift from an old friend."

Lu Ten gritted his teeth. While he was infinitely thankful that Iroh was his father—he only had to look at his poor cousin to see that—there were time that his father could be exasperating. Or nosy. The Crown Prince apparently did not understand what privacy meant, which, when extended to the servants, was alright, but was downright infuriating when he pried into Lu Ten's own affairs. At almost age twenty-five, most people would consider him to be capable of taking care of himself, but Iroh was very protective—and controlling—of his son, especially after what had nearly happened in the siege of Ba Sing Se.

"—duty to your people, my son." Iroh was lecturing him again. "And, as a husband—"

Lu Ten groaned—silently. His father would never let him forget it if he groaned out loud. He sneaked a glance at Mai, who was still standing there, silent in the shadows, but when he looked at her, she stared back unashamedly. Lu Ten glared at her, knowing that she caused this, but she only looked unimpressed. He had to admit, very few things—and people—could really rattle Mai.

Iroh had finished lecturing, and stood up, ready to leave. Then, abruptly, he turned back, grinning, and his hands lit on a fire so hot it burned white. Lu Ten wondered insanely for a moment if his father had finally decided to follow in his brother's footsteps when Iroh picked up the teapot shards.

When the fire was extinguished, Lu Ten fought the very strong urge to groan out loud. In his peripheral vision, he saw Mai looking faintly amused.

The ugly teapot was whole again.

* * *

><p>The winds surrounding the young Avatar were so strong they nearly toppled her over at thirty feet away. "What's going on?" Azula shouted at Sokka, who had a tiny, big-eared creature clutched to the back of his shoulders; he himself was trying not to be blown off by holding tightly onto the ruins of an ivy-covered wall. "What happened?"<p>

"It's the Avatar Spirit," a voice beside her murmured, the tones falling like wispy breezes resonating through a tube. "He saw his people dead, and the pain overwhelmed him. Even children of the wind are not so detached from earthly emotions that they do not feel anger and hatred, regret and pain."

Azula turned, and saw the apparition that had been fluttering around the temple. It wore tattered yellow and orange robes that were scorched and burned away in areas, though the apparition itself seemed unharmed. "You're a ghost," she stated flatly.

"A memory," it corrected, "formed by the fear of hundreds of children on the day that fire ate a path across the sky."

Just then, Sokka yelled back at her. "Stop staring into empty space, Zula! We need to calm Aang down! Do something!"

"He doesn't see you." Another statement, but one containing a hint of a question. Azula ignored her brother.

The memory shrugged. "Not many can see memories; we are nothing more than imprints, at best. You yourself are the first since the old man, who came a long time ago. It requires a certain kind of soul—one familiar with spirits and the Spirit World—to see me as you do." Suddenly, it looked upwards; clouds were rapidly gathering, and Azula noticed the memory seemed to fade with the rays of sunlight. "What's happening?" she asked. "How did the Spirit World touch me?"

"Good-bye, child of Sozin," it whispered.

"Wait!" The winds were getting stronger, but Azula had to get an answer out of the thing. "How did the Spirit World touch me? Tell me!"

But it only had time for a wave before the sun altogether disappeared, and the ragged strips of yellow and orange were blown away by the windstorm, which was so powerful that Azula could no longer afford to look for the elusive memory. She turned to the Avatar, who was, like her, was ignoring Sokka's yells.

"Aang! Calm down!" she shouted above the roar of the storm. Well, the Avatar could hardly hear her, she supposed. Azula swallowed the uncomfortable stone that always appeared when she, or anyone else, talked about herself. "I know that it's hard to find out that everything changed because of factors you cannot control. That it's hard to accept that people you thought would always be there for you aren't. But you have to be strong. Monk Gyatso and the other airbenders may be gone, but you have Sokka and I." Good old Sokka. "We're family, aren't we?" Aang seemed to relax slightly; the wind was becoming weaker, at any rate. "We're here for you." Sokka would want to help the boy because that was the way he was; Azula understood the importance of the kind of support in building almost unbreakable bonds. If Sokka and Gran-Gran could gain even her trust by helping her in those dark days, innocently trusting Aang was definitely susceptible to such acts. And she had lost too much to lose the Avatar as well. Even to himself.

It seemed that whatever she said go through to him, because Aang slowly descended, the white light vanishing from his tattoos until he was just a boy crumpled on the ground. Azula and Sokka jumped forward to go up to him, but he got up before they reached him. "I'm sorry," Aang told them, his grey eyes tired and sad. "I just…"

Sokka clapped a hand on Aang's shoulder. His face was solemn. "It's not your fault, Aang. No should have to—" He gestured at the broken, scattered bones of the dead airbenders. "Let's—ow!" The big-eared creature that had clutched onto his shoulders had dropped something onto him. And then another. "That hurt!" Sokka rubbed his head, before he saw what it was. "A peach!"

This got a slight smile from Aang, who opened his arms. The creature, which Azula now saw had a monkey-ish face and winged arms, flew into the young airbender, who hugged him tightly. "Just you, me, and Appa now, little buddy. We're all that's left of this place."

"What are you going to name it?" Sokka asked through mouthfuls of peach.

Aang smiled down at the creature. "Momo."

Azula was struck at both how pointless the name was and how pointless it was to find a pet on what was probably one of the most dangerous voyages at the time.

* * *

><p>Mismatched eyes glanced at the neat calligraphy on a time-worn scroll, before closing in frustration.<p>

Wrong one. Again. The scroll was haphazardly thrown across the room to join its fellows, all unfortunately and disrespectfully left in a messy pile. The reader sighed as he picked up another one, the last scroll left, from the hidden compartment next to him. He snuggled comfortably into the foot of Roku's statue, and began reading it immediately before groaning.

This wasn't it either. And now he had a pile of scrolls to put back in the stupid hidden compartment.

Prince Zuko, with a resigned on his face, half-heartedly walked over to the untidy pile when it happened.

The eyes of the dead statue began glowing white.

He gasped and rushed out of the room. The other Fire Sages would probably be upset that he didn't clean up after himself, but this was more important. He veritably flew down the stairs, pushing away the other confused sages and initiates in his way, until he reached the message room. He grabbed a pen, and scratched a message onto a paper that he quickly attached to a messenger hawk before letting it fly out.

_The Avatar has returned._


	4. The Warriors of Kyoshi

**Title: **Frozen Fire: Waterbender

**Author: **Qwerky Qity

**Rating: **T

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

**Summary: **In another world, Azula was a prodigious bender. Just not a prodigious firebender.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4: The Warriors of Kyoshi<strong>

The nervous young lieutenant took a deep breath as he rapped on Ozai's cabin door. "Sir?" The rest of the crew had unanimously voted that he would be the one to bring any and all reports to the ill-tempered ex-prince. After the way Ozai raged at the entire crew following his meeting with Zhao, no one really wanted to be near him at all, and as the newest soldier on board, not to mention the youngest, he was once again forced to see the ex-royal.

The door opened, and the lieutenant immediately dropped into a kowtow, too frightened to meet the other man's eyes.

"There is only one reason you should be interrupting me," Ozai murmured in a silky voice.

"We have been f-following the p-path of the airbender's b-bison, my lord," the lieutenant stuttered, still not daring to look up. "There has b-been many sightings of the b-beast, but we cannot tr-track it. They are clearly m-masters at the skill of evasion, for we—"

The voice dropped to a dangerous whisper and the unfortunate lieutenant cowered as flames formed at Ozai's fists. "Do not waste my time with excuses, peasant! Where are they?"

The lieutenant reached into his pocket with trembling fingers and pulled out a rolled up map, hastily unrolling it to show a messy, zigzagging pattern that made absolutely no sense. He tensed, ready to bolt in case Ozai's temper took a turn for the worse. For a brief moment, nothing happened.

Then, seeing the useless map, Ozai gave an enraged roar, and, lifting the younger man with a single hand, slammed him against the metal wall. The lieutenant winced as the impact sent vibrations across the entirely corridor. His head spun painfully.

"You," Ozai hissed, "are all useless fools if you cannot track the movements of three _children_." He tightened his grip on the lieutenant's neck. "Next time when I see you, I expect to be told useful information on Avatar's whereabouts, or I will not be so merciful. Do you understand me?"

The lieutenant made a choked noise that could have been anything, but Ozai took it as agreement, because he loosened his hold, allowing the lieutenant to drop down on the cold metal floor, gasping.

With an overly dramatic display, the ex-prince angrily burned the map, and the lieutenant heard the door slam. Slowly, he got up and walked to his own tiny quarters located in the darkest, most dismal parts of the ship, his head buzzing both from being slammed against the metal wall and from the information that the ex-prince had allowed to slip. So the airbender _was_ the Avatar, and he was traveling with the young Tribesman and the ex-prince's daughter. The Avatar had finally returned to the world after a century of speculations, worries, and war.

As he entered his cramped cabin, he reached under the pillow and felt for the white lotus Pai-Sho piece he hid there. "The Avatar is back," he whispered as he held it tightly. "The Avatar is _back._"

* * *

><p>"Azula, Sokka, look!" Aang spun two marbles in his palm. "Isn't this cool?"<p>

Not for the first time, Azula wondered if the world was really doomed to a fate of Fire Nation domination. With the way the Avatar sometimes acted, it wasn't completely out of question. Somehow, they had randomly visited several useless islands, where Aang had shocked the local people (and probably given himself away; the enormous sky bison was sort of hard to hide), and now they were traveling over the ocean to…somewhere.

She really should have put her foot down sometime long ago, but the talk with the spirit at the Southern Air Temple had disturbed her more than she would like, and, though Azula wouldn't admit it, even to herself, a small part of her enjoyed the vacations. After all, weren't they only children? The hot springs they had visited two days reminded her of her life before the…incident. She had become accustomed to the cold at the South Pole, where the only thing that wasn't ice or snow was freezing water, but that didn't mean that she didn't naturally gravitate towards heat, despite that being unusual for a waterbender, to say the least.

Was that what the spirit meant? That she was some kind of firebender-waterbender mix?

"Hey, Momo, stop it!" Aang laughed as the flying lemur tried to grab the spinning marbles. Boy and lemur ended up in a pile.

Sokka, meanwhile, was trying failing to make sense of the direction they were flying in. "I give up," he announced. "Either we stop making these unmappable side-trips or we end up at the North Pole sometimes next year." Looking at Aang, who was clearly _not_ paying attention, he sighed. More loudly, he repeated, "I said, we need to do some more flying and some less playing or we won't get to the North Pole until next year."

"Oh, c'mon, Sokka," Aang chirped. He pointed down. "Since we're here anyway, we might as well ride the elephant koi. Let's go down, Appa."

The bison lowed.

Sokka looked at Azula helplessly.

Azula shrugged in response, but didn't bother to try to persuade Aang against it. Kyoshi Island wasn't on the mainland; it would be more difficult for rumors to spread of the Avatar's return. So long as they kept a low profile, everything would be fine.

* * *

><p>"Whoopee!" Aang shouted as the elephant koi raced through the water, performing amazing acrobatics. "Look at me, 'Zula!" He waved at her eagerly, wobbling slightly as he stood on top of the gigantic fish.<p>

Azula winced, partly because of the nickname and partly because of Aang was making enough of a racket to attract every single predator on the island and then some. If there was any Fire Nation soldiers, they would definitely have noticed by now.

"Someone trying to impress you," Sokka muttered next to her. "Not being very subtle either."

"It would impress me more if he actually had the focus to stop playing around and go to the North Pole to learn waterbending," Azula snapped. Turning her attention away from Aang, she froze as she glimpsed a slight movement in the thick woods behind her. Surreptitiously, she scanned the area, but she didn't catch any more moving.

This wasn't good. A moving creature that knew to stay still and stalk its prey: either clever predator, or worse, someone seeking to capture the Avatar. Assuming that it was a person stalking them and not an animal, this situation could become very dangerous.

But why would someone come for them? If her estimation of Ozai was correct, barely anyone knew of the reappearance of the Avatar, or of her own continued existence. And they hadn't even stayed for a day yet; surely news couldn't travel that fast? Nevertheless, Azula made sure her face was blank and turned back around just enough that she could still see anyone who tried to attack her from the back. She shifted closer to Sokka.

"Don't look," she muttered out of the corner of her mouth, "but there's someone behind us, in the woods. I think they're after Aang."

Sokka's eyes hardened and he gave a tiny nod. "I'll be ready," he promised quietly. "How many?"

Azula glanced over the spot. They were good at camouflage. "Don't know. Be on your guard."

Meanwhile, Aang came over, dripping wet and looking upset. "You weren't paying any attention," he said to her, almost accusingly.

Azula stood up, subtly signaling Sokka to be on guard. "Aang, we really ought to get going."

"Why? This seems like a good place to set up camp."

Azula bit her lip as she saw a flash of white facepaint surrounding an eye. They were getting closer. Purposefully, she turned her back on the woods, tensed up to defend against an attack. "Aang—"

There was only the barest of seconds between the faint _thump_ that sounded behind Azula and the _whoosh_ of—was it a fan?—near her back, but the water close enough that it didn't matter. It only took a single jerk of her wrists, and suddenly the waves roared past her ears, and drenched everything and everyone: Aang, Sokka, and the dozen or so green-clad girls in smeared make-up, sputtering as ice crept up their arms and locked their wrists into place.

The one closest to Azula glared at her, though the effect was ruined by the trails of make-up running down her face. "Fire Nation spy!" she spat.

"Whoa." Sokka blinked, pointing his finger at the ice-encased female warriors. "You're a bunch of girls? A bunch of girls tried to take us down?"

The girl turned her glare to Sokka. "In case you haven't noticed, _boy_," she replied acidly, "you were about to be _taken down_ when your _sister_ saved you."

"Shut up, Sokka," Azula snapped at her flushing brother, seeing that he was about to argue. She turned to the girl. "Who are you?"

"I am Suki, leader of the Kyoshi Warriors," the girl announced proudly. "Kyoshi Island has been neutral since the beginning of the war, and I will not allow Fire Nation spies to ruin our peace."

"Wait." Aang bounded to her side. "Did you say that this island is named for Kyoshi? I know her!"

Stupid, stupid, stupid. How had she not thought of this. "Aang, this isn't the time—"

"That's impossible! Kyoshi has been dead for centuries! How could you know her?"

"I know her because I'm the Avatar!"

Azula closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Publically showing her exasperation with her companion's foolish actions by slapping him upside the head was below her. Instead, she focused on the amount of time it would take before the Fire Nation realized that the Avatar was on Kyoshi Island. Considering Kyoshi Island's distance from the mainland, a messenger hawk would take probably only a day or two before reaching the nearest Fire Nation garrison, which could easily send out several dozen soldiers to take down the Avatar. Their journey would take another two or three days, so they would have five days before needing to clear out. Unless she overestimated something, which was likely.

"The last Avatar was an airbender who died a century ago." Suki sounded doubtful. Her comrades, thought, were already looking at the scene with interest—to much interest for them to be counted on to be as skeptical as their leader. Especially when Aang flew into the air, flipping down in an unnecessarily dramatic fashion.

"Yup, that's me." He grinned. "Now watch this."

* * *

><p>Sokka trudged around the island. Aang had been welcomed by the islanders. Azula hadn't really been welcomed, especially by the glaring Kyoshi Wariors, but no one was brave or stupid enough to tell her that. He, on the other hand, had been attacked by angry fangirls who thought that he should not try to convince Aang to leave the island.<p>

Speaking of fangirls…

"Ow!" Looking through the window, he saw one of the warriors clutch her trembling left arm. The fan had dropped at her feet.

Suki appeared immediately at her side. "What happened, Rika? Should I summon the healer again?" At least she was concerned for the other girl; Sokka had to admit that Suki wasn't fundamentally a bad person. Or a bad leader. Just a little annoying. A little too full of herself. Though pretty…

The other warrior shook her head. "It's fine. I just need to rest."

Suki frowned. "Rika, waterbenders are known to have extraordinary healing abilities. Maybe if we asked her, she—"

"No. Suki, you saw the way she attacked us, it just wasn't _right_. She wasn't defending; she was attacking to kill." The warrior scowled. "I don't know how the Avatar can stand traveling with someone like that around; I know I can't. And I'm not about to beg _her_ to help me."

"Rika!" Suki rebuked. The warrior immediately fell quiet. "Someone's listening." She pointed at the place where Sokka was standing. "Come in, boy."

Sokka guiltily crept inside the room. "Uh, hi."

"What do you want?" Suki asked frostily. For that matter, all of the warriors were glaring at him to some degree. This was going to be more difficult than he thought…

"Hey." Sokka raised his hands in a gesture of mock surrender. "I was just walking around."

"And eavesdropping?" Rika asked acidly. "Not that I'd expect much else from a chauvinistic, ignorant-"

"Rika!"

"It's the truth!"

Sokka shifted on his feet. "About that…I'm sorry." He flushed. Now all the warriors were looking at him. "Really! I didn't mean to insult you or your fighting ability. I mean, with Azula…" he trailed off as he noticed the warriors stiffen at the name.

Suki looked at him, as if judging his sincerity. "Fine then. You've apologized. Now leave."

"What?"

"Leave." Suki gestured at the door. "You've made your apology; we accept it. That's already more than I can say for your sister."

"Why are you so mad at Azula?" Sokka asked curiously. "She's not a bad person. I mean, I guess she froze you all yesterday, but she was only defending herself. We thought that you might be Fire Nation. I mean, you can't fault her for that, can you?"

"You're kidding, right?" Rika burst out. She pushed the sleeve of her left arm up. "Look at this."

Sokka looked and immediately wished he hadn't. Parts of her forearm were bandaged, but the parts that weren't were discolored and swollen. It was a very familiar affliction in the South Pole: frostbite. But this was Kyoshi Island, which was so much warmer…oh.

"D-did this happen to all of you?" He swallowed. If it had been another novice waterbender, this could be a mistake, but Azula, for all that she had never trained, had extremely precise control over her bending.

"More or less." Suki smiled bitterly. "Ayko had to get two fingers amputated. You're not that bad for a boy, but I think you'll understand why we don't exactly welcome you and that sister of yours."

Sokka nodded silently as the warriors moved back together to continue sparring. "Aloe," he suddenly called out on the doorstep, surprising himself with his nerve.

"What?"

"Aloe. I saw it growing near the woods." Sokka gave a weak smile. "It helps with frostbite—other kinds of burns too."

"Thank you." Sokka wasn't sure, but he thought he could see a sliver of a smile on Suki's face. "Now leave."

* * *

><p>Azula closed her eyes as the small girls <em>ooh<em>ed and _aah_ed while Aang waved from the unagi's back, barley hanging on to the huge spiked fins. At least Appa was ready to go. He had been fed the best hay on the island, and was sleeping in an enormous stable; the horse-donkeys originally housed there had been unceremoniously driven out.

The creature shrieked and Aang was flung into the air before using airbending to fly back onto the unagi's head; she heard a couple of the girls clap and scream happily. Only a few more minutes and they could leave.

"Azula." Sokka was standing next to her with an uncharacteristically dark expression.

"We're going to be able to leave soon, don't worry," she told him. "I've packed everything. It's only been two days since we landed, but Kyoshi Island is not as remote as the South Pole. Still, I think we should be able to leave before anyone can come."

"It's not that." Sokka seemed to be struggling to say something. "You hurt the Kyoshi Warriors really badly yesterday."

"What do you mean?"

"They got frostbite, all of them. One of them had to have two fingers cut off. They were barely encased in ice for three minutes. You made the ice too cold on purpose."

There was silence. "Sokka, this is war. If they were Fire Nation soldiers, and I had only imprisoned them with ice, can you imagine what would happen? I needed a way of disabling them, if only temporarily."

"But you can't just go around hurting people like that!"

"We can't afford to let the Fire Nation capture the Avatar. If they didn't want this to happen, they shouldn't have attacked."

Sokka threw his hands up in the air. "Azula, can't you even pretend that you have a heart for once?"

Suddenly, Aang dropped on the beach, soaking wet and coughing up water. "Hey!" He waved to the siblings. "Was that cool or what?" His fan club had surrounded him again.

Azula sighed and walked forward, noting with a pang of pleasure that the fan club immediately parted when she came near. "We're leaving," she said bluntly as she dragged Aang by the arm.

"'Zula," he whined. "Just a few more minutes."

His fan club nodded vigorously.

She whipped around. "Listen, Aang_ie_," she hissed in a low, dangerous voice. "We've already overstayed on this island, and if we remain any longer, the Fire Nation will come and they will destroy this island and kill every one of its—" She broke off as she glimpsed something black on the horizon.

Something black and emitting smoke.

Sokka looked at what had distracted Azula and paled. "I've got to warn the Kyoshi Warriors! They can't fight with their injuries!"

"What?" Aang tugged at Azula sleeve. "'Zula?"

"The Fire Nation's coming." Azula turned to the fan club, now all sporting frightened expressions. "Go back to your parents as quickly as you can," she ordered; they obeyed without question. Sokka would take care of warning the Kyoshi Warriors and Oyaji. "Aang, you're coming with me."

* * *

><p>Ozai smirked atop his komodo rhino, followed by five soldiers, as screams resounded in the town square; another building had caught fire. On the ground, green-clothed figures lay still; the girls had put up an astoundingly poor fight for the "legendary" Kyoshi Warriors. What a shame.<p>

Several members of his crew were attacking other areas of the island in hopes of drawing the Avatar out. Not that they knew that he was the Avatar, of course.

"Come out!" he called over the screams and groans. Azula, the cunning little brat that she was, probably would try to restrain him, but Ozai could see that the Avatar was not the type to run while others burned and died. "You cannot hide forever." He paused to blast fire at an unfortunate young boy. "Come out, or the inhabitants of Kyoshi Island will pay for your cowardice."

Pushing his rhino on, he considered the places the Avatar could be hiding in. He hadn't seen the enormous beast fly away, so the Avatar was almost certainly still on the island; not in the woods, which had been burned down first, nor in the destroyed fishing wharfs.

But there was so much more that he hadn't yet searched. "You," he commanded the soldier to his left, "search the fields. You two," he ordered the ones on his right, "go to the beach. You" he told the young lieutenant who had brought him the news of the Avatar, "follow me."

Ozai moved forward, lighting a path of destruction as he did.

* * *

><p>Oyaji wheezed painfully as he packaged Avatar Kyoshi's relics in a bag, moving quickly for his age and injuries. When he finished, he held the bag out to Suki.<p>

Her eyes widened. "Oyaji—"

He held up his hands. "We have managed to keep out of this war for a century," he rasped, "but from the minute that ship landed I knew that this would happen. You must go with them, Suki."

"No," she whispered. "I will fight, we—"

"Let him talk," Sokka murmured.

She turned on him. "This is all your fault!" she screamed. "You brought that—that monster here—"

"Suki!" Oyaji lapsed into a fit of coughing. The soldier's fireball had caught him in the chest. "Go with them. Keep the ways of Kyoshi alive."

"I can't do this," Suki said in a small voice. "I won't leave."

"Yes you will! We have to protect the Avatar at all costs." Oyaji looked at her intensely. "The Fire Nation can burn Kyoshi Island to the ground, but so long as even one of our daughters lives, Kyoshi Island will live on." A crash and a child's weeping was heard. Sokka didn't want to think about what had happened. "Now go! Before they find you."

Suki's eyes were full of tears as she numbly accepted the remnants of Avatar Kyoshi with shaking hands. She stumbled and Sokka pulled her away from Oyaji.

"I'll take care of her," Sokka promised quietly as he led her away. "Don't worry."

Oyaji nodded. His eyes were already dimming.

* * *

><p>Azula kept a firm grip on Aang. She could feel the heat of the fires nearby; it was only luck that had stopped the Fire Nation soldiers from finding them so far. Just like it was only her unshakeable hold on his arm that kept Aang from rushing to help the unfortunate islanders.<p>

Five minutes until they reached Appa. Luckily, he was on the other side of the island, so the invaders had not come across him yet.

Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by a blast of fire that made her lose her grip on Aang. They were thrown down in opposite directions.

Ozai's cruel voice sounded maliciously excited. "Looks like we meet again, daughter." The ex-prince was flanked by another masked soldier. He smirked, but his attention was already directed to the bigger prize: Aang, struggling out of the wreckage. "Imagine what they will call me," he said as he raised his arms for a strike. "Ozai, the slayer of the Avatar."

Too late, Azula realized that he was positioned for a lightning strike, and her heart sank. She was too far to intercept Ozai before he killed Aang, too far to push Aang out of the way, this was all going to be for nothing—

A blinding flash came from Ozai's hand, and Azula registered two voices screaming "No!" at the same time when suddenly, the other soldier pushed Ozai off of his komodo rhino, the lightning rippling as it went harmlessly into the sky.

Azula rushed over to Aang and pulled him up. His grey eyes were wide.

"Go," shouted the other soldier. "Protect the Avatar! He's our only hope!"

Azula gave one look at the young soldier who had to know that he would die for this by the hand of the furious ex-prince, and ran, dragging Aang along as she did.

* * *

><p>On Appa's saddle, Suki was sobbing. Next to her, Sokka sat, staring helplessly at his hands.<p>

Aang sat at the head. His shoulders drooped sadly.

Azula sat with her back straight and her head high, as if unaffected by what had happened.

But two scenes replayed in Azula's head over and over again: the image of the soldier shouting at her to protect the Avatar, and the memory of Sokka asking if she could pretend to have a heart.

* * *

><p>Ozai gave a roar of fury as the dead body of the traitor lay on the ground. The Avatar had once again slipped through his fingers; not only that, but there was a traitor in his own crew. Naturally he had expected that his <em>loving<em> father would place a spy, but he hadn't expected one to betray him for the Avatar.

"Sir?" A frightened voice sounded next to him. Looking up, Ozai saw the survivors of Kyoshi Island rounded into a pen. "What do we do now?"

Ozai looked pitilessly at the weeping, wounded islanders. He would teach the Avatar a lesson about running away. "Kill them. And burn down everything else."

* * *

><p>Maybe it was just the firelight playing a trick on him, but his father and grandfather both looked decades older than they really were. The letter was on the huge, polished table, a wrinkled piece of paper that carried such vital information for the ensured survival of the Fire Empire.<p>

_The Avatar has returned._

There were only three of here: Lu Ten, Iroh, and Firelord Azulon. They were the only three people who knew of the contents of Zuko's hasty missive, but rumors were already starting up. There had been numerous sightings of an airbender across the southern Earth Kingdom, and the reports of the incident on Kyoshi Island was too suspicious to be completely false.

"The Avatar has finally made his appearance," Azulon rasped. He sat at the head of the table, and, without the layer of flames that usually concealed him, the Firelord looked like any elderly noble. Nevertheless, Lu Ten knew not to underestimate his grandfather; Azulon might look old, but his firebending was as strong as ever. He could only hope that the same was not true for the Avatar.

"He will need to be defeated as quickly as possible." Iroh was deep in thought. "He cannot be allowed to lend hope to the Earth Kingdom rebels, especially when we are so close to victory. Moreover, the Avatar may disrupt our plans. But the Avatar is the master of all four elements…it will be difficult to kill him, much less capture him."

Azulon's face tightened. "Yet we cannot use overwhelm him with numbers. Not only has past records indicated that the Avatar can easily destroy entire platoons of soldiers, but much of our army and navy are placed in strategic locations; to remove them in order to chase the Avatar would mean that we could be pushed back, especially if the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes are heartened by word of the Avatar's return. And if word gets out that the Avatar has returned, it would only decrease morale among our own ranks."

"I agree." Lu Ten surprised himself by speaking up. He had met with his father and grandfather in private before—he _was_ the heir of the Crown Prince, after all—but mostly remained silent while the two older, more-experienced men talked out solutions. "That means that our only option in this situation is to send a small, elite team to bring him down. They would be able to move faster than an entire army, and it would be easier for them to hide and attack."

Iroh frowned. "The Avatar is the greatest of all benders," he reminded his son. "And surely, after a century of training, he can easily bring down any elite group, despite his age."

Lu Ten's eyes gleamed as he realized that he had the perfect method to both impress his father and grandfather _and_ end his farce of a marriage. "That is why we will send an elite team of non-benders," he explained excitedly. "Most benders would not expect a non-bender to be capable of taking them down. And if they have the element of the surprise on their side, surely even the Avatar can be taken down."

Iroh frowned. Mixing personal affairs with public situations…

Azulon, on the other hand, nodded his approval. "That idea may work," he said thoughtfully. "Thought we would need to assured of their loyalty, intelligence, and skill in combat."

"I have a few ideas on whom we should give this mission to," Lu Ten told him. His father looked resigned, but Lu Ten knew that he won the round.

Mai, shielded from view by the heavy ornamental statue, tightened her grip on her knives.


	5. The King of Omashu

**Title: **Frozen Fire: Waterbender

**Author: **Qwerky Qity

**Rating: **T

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

**Summary: **In another world, Azula was a prodigious bender. Just not a prodigious firebender.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5: The King of Omashu<strong>

The sun had long set – indeed, it was close to sunrise – when an intruder slipped inside the ancient temple. In the reading room, Zuko heard only the faintest of footsteps before the intruder was in the doorway. Cloaked in heavy robes, with a large hood, it was almost impossible to tell if it was male or female, much less see its face. But this was the one person in the world Zuko did not need to see to know who it was.

Zuko looked down at his scroll. The delicate calligraphy faded into a blur, as it always did when he couldn't concentrate. The tiny candle flames swayed back and forth with his mood.

"Hello Mai."

The hood slipped off, and Mai's pale, blank face appeared. "Hello Zuko." The uneven flickering of the candles drew harsh shadows on the planes of her face, outlining her amber eyes.

Mai had moved so that she sat on the cushion across from him. "It has been three years, Zuko. Don't you want to know why I am here?" Her voice was as flat as it always was, but listening carefully, Zuko could hear the tiniest trace of anger and hurt. If he looked up, he imagined that he would see it reflected in the tightness of the skin around her mouth, the way her eyebrows slanted together fractionally. Small things, things that no one but him would know to look for.

He closed the scroll, setting it aside, but still refusing to look at her directly. "I know that you should not be here," he said finally. "You are the wife of Prince Lu Ten. The court will notice if you leave, even only for a little while."

"I'm sure the rumors will be taken care of. After all, the Firelord sent me on my mission." He could feel the intenseness of her gaze. "I am to capture the Avatar."

Zuko's head snapped up, his golden eyes widening with horror. "What? Why?" he demanded. "Does Lu Ten know? This is madness – I'll write to him. He can't let you go! It's too dangerous!"

"My lord husband was the one who suggested it." Mai's lips twisted in a bitter smile. "I have become an impediment to him. My marriage is not as happy as you think, Zuko."

He winced at the hidden accusation in her words – _all your fault, your selfishness caused this_, words Mai would never say out loud, even if she thought them in her heart…or did she? Was he just making too much of it? "Lu Ten does not – I mean, he..." Zuko trailed off. "My cousin – he does not – "

"He does not beat me, if that's what you mean. Simply put, our relationship is this: he ignores me, I ignore him, and he tries to pretend that I do not exist. Sending me to capture the Avatar is merely his latest attempt at ridding himself of my presence." Mai's voice had acquired a cold edge. "You know your cousin, Zuko. Prince Lu Ten cares only for his own pleasure; he is too lazy to be purposefully cruel."

Zuko winced again at her description of his cousin. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

Silence dominated the room for what seemed like hours.

By then, the first rays of the new sun were peeking over the horizon; the other sages and acolytes would be up soon. Mai noticed too, because she reached to pull up her hood. "Time to leave, I suppose."

"Wait." Zuko scrambled up. "If you're going to capture the Avatar, you can't do it alone."

"I already have an idea of who to ask to go with me. With her around, at least this trip won't be boring."

Zuko pulled a white lotus tile from his sleeve. "Take this," he urged. "And find Master Piandao. Show it to him and tell him it came from me; he'll come with you after that."

She took it. "Are you sure?"

"Positive." Zuko tried to smile, but it came out as more of a pained grimace. "Good luck, Mai."

She gave a curt nod pulled her hood over her head. In the doorway, she paused. "Zuko?"

"Yes?"

"Have you ever regretted this?"

This – _this_ could be so many things: renouncing his birthright, his titles, his place in the succession, relinquishing a comfortable career as an advisor or courtier or general to be a Fire Sage, giving up _her_…

For the first time, Zuko thought about the long nights spent poring across hopelessly illegible scrolls, the days passed under the sun training and learning, the sparse meals and the austerity of the entire temple. He thought of his mother's sickly face when he had told her he was leaving, of Mai's stiffness when he said good-bye, of all of the things he had suffered only to go through disappointment after disappointment…

But then he remembered Azula trying to hide her tears when she tried and _tried _and couldn't even produce a single spark; he remembered the way she always spied enviously on his firebending lessons and practiced until she knew the moves better than he did, as if knowing how the katas would let her firebend; he remembered that horrible night when he saw the fire crawl up her wrists and arms, and how Ozai's expression remained unmoved in the face of his daughter's screams, of the flames that met his own face when he lunged forward –

And then, he had his answer.

* * *

><p>"What's that?" Sokka picked at the packages Azula dumped in front of the group. "Whoa, did you find a merchant that will actually sell stuff for Water Tribe money?"<p>

Azula ignored the question. "We need to blend in now that we're on the Earth Kingdom mainland."

At her insistence, Aang had begun to grow out his hair. It was still too short to hide his arrows, so he was going to have to wear a hat for a few days. Sokka had refused to give up his warrior's wolf tail, but it was close enough to what some southerner wore that it wouldn't attract undue attention; in his case, the variety of cultures in the Earth Kingdom would protect him. Suki, being from Kyoshi Island, needed very little in the way of adjustment, though she did need some new clothes. It simply wouldn't do for a girl in Kyoshi battle garb to appear in public.

Azula herself was already dressed in Earth Kingdom greens. She found that she liked them much more than the thick coats she wore in the South Pole. Rather than being made for warmth, Earth Kingdom clothes were made for comfort, and while they lacked a certain versatility in the coarse cloths, it was still better than going around the country in a blue dress.

Suki was frowning at the shirt she was given. "You stole these," she said flatly. "There's no way that any cloth merchant this far up north would accept Water Tribe money."

Azula looked back at Suki coolly. She had in fact blackmailed the cloth merchant into giving them to her, but they didn't need to know that. Thievery drew attention; blackmail ensured that the merchant would never dare tell anyone. "Certainly," she drawled. "I stole the clothes and made sure to fold them perfectly before bringing my ill-begotten goods over to share. In fact, I had so much time that I decided to wrap them too."

Suki flushed angrily. "Stop pretending; it isn't going to do you any good. I know what kind of person you—"

"Calm down, calm down!" Sokka was trying to act as mediator. "Suki, if Azula said she didn't steal them, she didn't steal them. Right?" He looked at Azula meaningfully.

"Let her believe what she will." Azula waved a hand dismissively. "It obviously gives the poor girl comfort to blame me for everything that has gone wrong in her life."

"Why _you_ – "

"But I must make clear that I was not the one who caused it. And you will have to accept that fact sooner or later." She leaned forward, looking straight at Suki. "You have a brain, Suki. Use it."

Suki seemed torn, but Azula had obviously hit her problem straight on, so she simply sent Azula one last glare and stalked away.

"Can't you guy just have one day without arguing?" Sokka moaned.

"If you hadn't seen fit to bring her along we wouldn't have this problem." Azula frowned at Sokka. Impulsively adding another member to their little group was not good, even if Suki was a capable warrior.

Taking out her coin pouch, she counted the coins the merchant had given her to keep his secret. It probably wasn't as much as she could have gotten, but Azula preferred to not push the limit. A wise man was one who knew when to go and when to stop.

"Azula?" Aang's quiet voice interrupted her counting. He had shuffled over, already changed. Momo pulled half-heartedly at the fuzz growing on Aang's head, but the creature seemed to have been infected with Aang's unusually depressed mood.

Azula suspected that Suki's presence had something to do with this. The girl had not outright or even indirectly accused Aang of anything, but what he had witnessed on Kyoshi Island…well, Aang was still a child. Technically they all were, but the Avatar had some kind of innocence that the rest of them didn't, probably a result of living in a happy family atmosphere in peacetime. Watching an island of people burn – in its own way, it had to be more painful than finding the remnants of the airbenders.

She inclined her head to indicate that she was listening.

He cleared his throat. "Omashu's there." He pointed not so subtly at the enormous Earth Kingdom city. "Do you think it's okay if we visit it – you know, now that we're disguised and all?"

As a matter of fact, she did _not_ think it was okay to visit it – but didn't Aang need an earthbending master? The Avatar was supposed to master all four elements in order, but it couldn't hurt to look for one right now. And she was itching to go to a city that had something other than igloos or shabby little shacks. "I don't see why not."

"Great!" Aang suddenly smiled, dark mood instantly gone. "And I can show you the Omashu mail delivery system. It's amazing!"

* * *

><p>To Aang's pleasure and the rest's chagrin, Azula had not vetoed his decision to ride in an earthen cart down Omashu's unstable chutes and tubes.<p>

"Bumi and I did this all the time," Aang said happily. On the way here, he had told them everything about Omashu, from the secret sewer entrance to the game of earthball. "He was a mad genius, you know." Aang patted the cart; it wobbled unreassuringly. "These carts are moved up by earthbending, and down by gravity. Since we can't earthbend, we'll be starting at the top."

Behind Azula, Sokka was muttering a prayer. "Please don't do this, please don't do this, _please_ don't do this…"

"Hold on tight!" Aang shouted excitedly as he leaned forward.

Sokka's girlish scream was _very_ satisfying to hear. Even more so when Suki grabbed his wolf-tail and shouted at him to stop screaming in her ear.

* * *

><p>"I can't believe we got arrested! Or that he recognized me!"<p>

"We rode the cart next to a cart of spears that nearly impaled a group of guards, crashed across countless rooftops, got attacked by a bearded cat, and landed in a mountain of _cabbages_ of all things. I would be surprised if we _weren't_ arrested." Azula crossed her arms. "As for recognizing that you're the Avatar, it's your own fault for catching that drumstick with airbending." Though that was strange, since Aang's arrows had all been hidden. Surely the mad king couldn't have recognized that he was an airbender, much less the Avatar.

"It was a natural reflex," Aang protested. Suddenly his eyes lit up as he scanned the opposite wall. "I know how we're going to get out of here!"

He grabbed Momo, who was lazing around eating apples, and climbed on top of a chair next to the tiny air vent. Azula's eyebrows raised as the Avatar's intentions became clear. Across the room, Suki seemed to see it also, because she was struggling not to laugh.

"Aang, Momo isn't going to fit in that vent."

"Oh he will," Aang replied optimistically. The flying lemur shook its head and tried to get out. "C'mon Momo. Go get Appa!"

"Appa?" Sokka walked over. "What can Appa do?"

"Appa's a ten ton flying bison." Aang rolled his eyes as if his idiotic plan was obvious, which it admittedly was. "He can break us out of here!"

"Aang," Azula said, trying to keep the edge out of her voice, "that's not going to work."

"Then what do we do? You heard the king; he wants me to do three dangerous challenges! Dangerous!"

Azula smiled chillingly. "Do you remember that secret passage you told me about?"

* * *

><p>"Yuck," Sokka complained as they walked through the sewer system. "Couldn't we have found another way out?"<p>

"No one would look in here, even if they did realize we are gone." Azula kept her own appearance pristine by bending off the slime that was dripping from everywhere. Luckily, it was dark in the sewers. Her hands were shaking again; the filthy, claustrophobic space brought back bad memories.

_Pain, pain, _pain_ shot up her arms as she forced her burnt hands to work and open the way to the sewage system that ran across the Fire Nation Capitol. Blinking away tears, she crawled through the dirty, squalid space. Hurry hurry, she told herself, if she could make it to the docks before sunrise, maybe she could make it._

_Ozai's roar behind him forced the girl to keep on moving. She muffled a cry as a piece of rubbish scraped against her burn. Oh Zuko, she thought, where are you? Had he been killed by Ozai yet? No, no, Zuko was the prodigy, the swordsman and firebender and poet, Ozai wouldn't kill his heir, hadn't he told her as much?_

_She ran until she was sure she was out of the palace, probably farther from her home than she had ever been. The mucky water was rising higher and higher – if it reached above her head, she wouldn't be able to breathe! Azula bit back her panic. Her injured arms would make it difficult to swim; oh how she wished the burns would heal. For a moment she thought she saw her arms glow white, but then the flood receded a little and she forced herself to move –_

"What's that noise?" Sokka's voice interrupted her memories.

A loud thump echoed through the tavern. Then another. And another.

"It's only someone walking above us," Azula whispered. "Let's go."

Suddenly, the space in front of her exploded. She instinctively threw herself back, knocking into Aang and Suki. Light and sound flooded her senses.

A snorting laughter sounded in front her. "Though you could escape me, eh?"

* * *

><p>Ozai gritted his teeth as several flagships surrounded his own ship. The others on deck were looking nervously at the soldiers that were boarding his own ship – and how worn and old his battleship was in comparison to the newer models – but Ozai felt only contempt and hate towards the filth that dared to look down at him as if he was inferior to them.<p>

The commanding officer, a youngish man with no mustache, took out a scroll that had markings that revealed it to be a royal order, directly from the Firelord.

Ozai wondered how his father was going to punish him now. The news of the Kyoshi Island massacre had probably already gotten back to the old ruler, and as he thought, the pathetic old man would disagree with his methods. In Ozai's opinion, while Azulon had been a good Firelord in his day, the time was ripe for a new, more effective Firelord to take his place on the throne. If only that accursed son of his hadn't interrupted him, perhaps he would not be where he was now.

The officer was already reading the order. "…and the exile, ex-Prince Ozai, is to be brought to the Capitol for further punishment for his offences."

Ozai slowly inhaled. Did the fool really think that he would go down like this? The soldiers certainly seemed to. He supposed that he could go with them, and try to escape from the Fire Nation Capitol, but that would be a waste of time and effort. He looked the officer directly in the eye, and was surprised when the other man's gaze flickered down to look at his left hand.

Ozai's own gold eyes widened slightly when they caught sight of the enormous gold snake that coiled a ruby on the man's ring. Almost immediately, the officer subtly slid his sleeve to hide the ring, but Ozai already understood.

Ozai meekly allowed himself to be led into the lead flagship.

* * *

><p>Azula gritted her teeth angrily as the mad king stuck rings onto her, Sokka, and Suki, that were made of jennamite, some sort of creeping crystal that was already crawling up her wrist. But it couldn't be dangerous; the Avatar was the last hope against Fire Nation domination, the mad king had to know this. He wouldn't murder the Avatar's companions.<p>

Aang's first task was to fetch the mad king's lunchbox key from behind a waterfall. Aang immediately tried to climb the ladder. Fool! Some challenges were challenging because the answer was simple, but Azula could tell at a glance that this would not be one of them.

She looked at the chortling madman. He never said she couldn't help Aang, and while the crystal had already consumed her left forearm, her other hand was still free. It would only take a few simple movements…

The mad king's laughter was cut short by an enormous, misshapen icicle that came within an inch of his head, pinning the chain to the wall behind him. Water dripped onto the top of his bizarre hat. He looked at her with new interest.

Azula stared back coldly.

The mad king only laughed again. "Brave little girlie wants to help her friend? Clever! But no more cheating!" He cackled. "The Avatar does the next two tests on his own. No help allowed!"

* * *

><p>Azula should have expected that the mad king would have a creature as strange as a gorilla goat for a pet. But one named "Flopsie"? At least it was a gentle creature. For a moment there, she thought it would tear Aang apart or run him through with its horns.<p>

Not that she actually cared about what happened to Aang, but the Avatar was another story altogether. The Avatar was her ticket to getting home – home, in the Fire Nation. If she had the Avatar as an ally, even Ozai wouldn't be able to do anything, not when the Avatar was the greatest of all benders.

Though she was becoming less and less sure of that last part watching Aang and the mad king fight. Though Azula understood that appearances are deceptive, she had not expected a man who was probably a century old to fight so well. Nevertheless, Aang should have been able to do _something_ other than dodging the man's attacks. Could he launch a single offensive?

Avoid and evade: the Air Nomads' philosophy was so frustrating. Air could do great things, terrible things, but if Aang really was the last airbender alive, Azula wouldn't ever get to see the true extent of an airbender's power. The only thing she'll get to see is flying and dodging.

Sokka cheered from behind her. "Yes! It's done!" The jennamite glowed and grew another bit so that it covered his cheeks.

Down below, Aang and the mad king were at a standstill. Then, mad king tossed the boulder away. "Very well, Avatar! You have passed my tests."

"Then free my friends!" Aang's eyes darted up anxiously.

The king was not finished. "But first, you must tell me my name."

"What? But you said you'd free my friends!" Aang looked horribly dismayed. A moving platform had brought both him and the king back to where Azula and company were being encased in jennamite.

Aang hurried over. "Any ideas?'

Sokka thought for a moment. "Rocky? Because he's an earthbender?"

Suki sighed. "Sokka, no one sane names their kid 'Rocky' in the Earth Kingdom."

"Exactly! He's mad! Maybe it was inherited!"

Azula ignored Sokka's comments. "He knows you," she said bluntly. "None of the tasks were fatal, and he held back in the duel." Azula was sure of this. She hadn't met many earthbenders, but there was no one someone like the mad king could let a pacifist monk who refused to attack fight him to a stalemate unless he was going easy on him.

Comprehension dawned on Aang as he turned back to the king. "Do you know my name yet?" asked the king.

Aang smiled broadly. "How could I not? You're a mad genius, Bumi."

Bumi! Of course, it would be the mad friend who had taught Aang to ride the delivery system.

The mad king snorted – or was it laughed? To him they seemed to be one and the same. He hugged Aang. "I missed you, Aang."

"This is touching and all, but help!" Sokka shouted as the jennamite closed over his mouth.

Bumi chuckled and made a punching motion, causing the crystal to shatter around the trio. Azula picked a piece off the floor. "Tell me, King Bumi, exactly what is jennamite?" She had been so sure that it was harmless, but the earthbending king could blow it up like a piece of rock. Could he have put actual rock on them?

"Rock candy!"

Of course it was.

* * *

><p>As the four prepared to leave, Azula sought out the mad king one last time. Aang and the others were traveling around the city, buying "supplies". She had no doubt they would be purchasing completely useless trinkets, but this wasn't the time to worry. At least Bumi had given them the money.<p>

She paused in front of the throne room. The mad king was sitting on the floor with a Pai-Sho board in front of him, chortling madly. He looked up at her. "Come in!"

Azula walked in. She noticed that the pieces were arranged in the shape of a lotus, and the white lotus tile was placed in the middle.

Curious.

"You want to ask me a question," he sing-songed.

"I do." Azula regarded the king. Sitting down like a child with a new toy, he seemed harmless, senile, perhaps, but harmless. "The Avatar needs an earthbending teacher."

Bumi nodded. "He does. But first, he needs to master water! With you!" He pointed at Azula with a crooked finger. "Sit. We have much to discuss."

"King Bumi, we both know you're perfectly sane, so please drop the act." Azula sat down across from the king. "You don't plan on teaching him earthbending. And we won't be coming back."

"How do you know that?"

Azula smirked. "I'm a people person."

Bumi looked at her closely. "You know, you're almost frighteningly intelligent. If you were working for the other side, I'd be worried for Aang. And you're correct." Bumi smiled sadly. "We are too close to the Fire Nation for them to allow Omashu to remain free for long. I expect that an army will come within a few months at most. And when the time comes, Omashu will need me more than Aang will."

"Then who will teach Aang?" Azula pressed.

Bumi shrugged nonchalantly. "There are nine hundred and eighty-two earthbending masters out there. Or was it eight hundred and ninety-two? Either way, you have a lot of choice."

Azula thought for a moment. That might be a lot of choice, but Aang, the _Avatar_, needed the best earthbending master, not some mediocre bender with an inflated ego. "And how will I know which one is the right earthbending master."

Bumi chortled. "That's the easy part, girlie! What do you know of _jing_?"

* * *

><p>Bumi watched the waterbender with Fire eyes walk away. He had told the truth when he said she was frighteningly intelligent, but it would do Aang good to have her around. He had known that since when she had flung that piece of ice at his head. Intelligent, perceptive, and brave too.<p>

He sighed and picked up the white lotus piece again.

* * *

><p>The sun was setting when a single hooded figure made its way across the long road that led to Piandao's enormous castle. A delicate white hand rose and lifted the knocker – lotus-shaped, she noticed.<p>

The door opened. "Can I help you?"

"I have come to see Master Piandao." Mai didn't bother pulling down her hood.

The bearded butler seemed to be hesitating, but in the end, let her in. "Wait here," he instructed. "I will inform Master Piandao of your arrival."

He left, leaving her standing in the courtyard – also lotus-shaped. In fact, it was the exact shape lotus as the tile Zuko had given her. The white lotus definitely meant something – a secret message or signal? But how did Zuko ever meet Master Piandao? He was too young to have met the man during his time in the army, and to the best of her knowledge, Piandao never left Shu Jing after he "retired", and Zuko never visited the city.

The white lotus tile was a Pai-Sho piece. Perhaps that was a lead?

Her speculations were interrupted by the arrival of the butler, leading the way for a middle-aged man. He was tall, his skin darker than the usual white of Fire Nation citizens, and though he carried no sword, Mai noted that his posture was that of a soldier.

Piandao paused a sword's length away from here. "May I inquire as to who has graced my home with her presence?

Mai lifted her hood. She saw Piandao's eyebrows raise in surprise. "Princess Mai." He gave a low bow. "Does the Firelord have a message for his humble servant?"

They both knew very well that the Firelord had nothing to do with her arrival in Shu Jing, and that he served the Firelord as much as a Water Tribe savage did. "Actually," she announced, "I came to give you this." She pulled the tile from her sleeve and offered it to the swordsman.

Piandao accepted it, and looked it over carefully. "May I ask who it came from, Your Highness?"

So he knew that Mai would not have thought to give it to him on her own. There was definitely some meaning linked to the tile. "Prince Zuko gave it to me, asking that you accompany on my travels."

Piandao raised an eyebrow. "Where do you plan to go, You Highness?"

"I was given a mission to capture the Avatar, or, failing that, to kill him," she said bluntly. Piandao's eyes widened at her declaration. "Will you come with me, Master Piandao?"

For a moment, he seemed as if he would refuse. Mai had to admit she didn't know if she would prefer it that he did. If he didn't want to help her, but still came along, he could easily impede her efforts, not to mention traveling with a deserter

"Of course, Your Highness." He turned to his butler. "Fat, fetch me my sword." He looked at Mai. "I assume we will be leaving immediately, Princess?"

"Certainly, after I pick up one more person. And please stop calling me 'Your Highness' or 'Princess'." In Mai's mind, "Your Highness" was always Lu Ten or Iroh or even Zuko, and "Princess"…well, she was dead.

For the first time since they met, Piandao looked at her with something resembling interest.


	6. Imprisoned

**Title: **Frozen Fire: Waterbender

**Author: **Qwerky Qity

**Rating: **T

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

**Summary: **In another world, Azula was a prodigious bender. Just not a prodigious firebender.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6: Imprisoned<strong>

Ty Lee hummed happily as she balanced herself on two fingers. From her left, she heard shouts as a tent collapsed, from her right, she saw out of the corner of her the platypus-bear Bolly, who growled menacingly at several trainers. What a beautiful day.

As Ty Lee moved so that she was standing on her arms rather than her fingers, a lanky shape appeared in front of her. She squinted as the shape stopped a few paces away. It did look awfully familiar…"Mai!"

Mai stiffly allowed herself to be squeezed by an over-excited Ty Lee. "It's good to see you again, Ty Lee."

Ty Lee let go and smiled broadly. "It's good to see you too Mai." She peered at her friend, whose aura was even greyer and more dull than usual, spotted with reds and purples. "Are you feeling alright? Your aura is a little grey."

"It's always grey," Mai pointed out dryly. "You say that every time you see me."

"I do, don't I?" Ty Lee laughed and assumed her handstand. "Did you finally get Prince Lu Ten to let you out?" Lu Ten had been so _cute_, and certainly didn't hurt that his father was the nicest, funniest father Ty Lee had ever met. Ty Lee wished that she could meet such a cute boy. But some people had all the luck, didn't they?

Mai's face became strained. "The Firelord has given me a mission," she said quietly. "He wants me to capture the Avatar."

"The Avatar?" Ty Lee cocked her head. "He's actually back?"

"Yeah. I came here to ask you a favor. Could you come with me on my mission?"

Ty Lee thought it over for a moment, hovering between not wanting to disappoint her friend and not wanting to leave the cirucs. "Gee, Mai, I'd love to go with you, but the circus is my calling, you know? I mean, my aura's never been pinker!" She felt a twinge of guilt when she saw Mai's aura transition to a bluish color. Poor Mai, all alone against the Avatar, what if something happened to her? Mai could take care of herself, of course, but she'd want the companionship of an old friend, wouldn't she? "…but the universe is giving me strong hints that it's time for a career change!" Mai's aura lit up, which helped assuage Ty Lee's disappointment in leaving the circus. "Of course I'll come. But could you do me a favor first?"

"Sure." Mai wasn't sure why she suddenly felt a sense of impending doom. "What do you want me to do?"

"Stay for my show, of course!" Ty Lee giggled happily while Mai's aura returned abruptly to its usual grey. But Ty Lee knew from the faint yellowish tint remaining in her friend's aura that Mai wasn't really _that_ upset about it.

* * *

><p>In retrospect, not going with the three on their shopping trip had been a bad idea. Sokka and Aang had bought too many toys – including a bison-shaped whistle that Aang insisted could call Appa to them – and not enough food. Which meant that dinner had become a problem.<p>

Suki inspected one of the nuts Sokka had scavenged. "Sokka, I hate to break it to you…but this is a rock."

"Oh." Sokka looked down at the handful of nuts, er, rocks, he had collected. He shrugged. "Well, dig in, then!"

Suki and Aang exchanged incredulous looks. Azula grimaced and threw her own rock onto the ground, where Momo picked it up and tried to bite into. Shaking his tiny, big-eared head, the small creature tossed it onto the forest floor.

_Boom_.

Momo yelped and rushed to hide in Aang's shirt. "Stop that Momo," Aang laughed as the lemur scrabbled around, tickling him. "W-what's that noise?"

_Boom_.

"It's over there!" Sokka shouted, pointing at his left.

It sounded like two rather heavy objects hitting each other. They were in the woods, and there was no sound of wheels, or people, or animals around. That eliminated the possibility that it was a group of travelers. What else could it be? The heaviest objects usually found in the woods would be rocks and boulders…Azula eyes widened as she formed the natural conclusion. "It's an earthbender," she warned. Earthbenders were unlikely to be as hostile to them as firebenders, but she didn't want to take any chances.

_Boom._

"Hey earthbender!" Aang had already run over rashly to where Azula could see a boy with long hair was standing with a levitating rock. The rock fell back to the ground when the boy saw Aang. He gasped, eyes widening in fear. "I'm –"

The boy quickly ran in the opposite direction, pulling down a cascade of rocks to block his exit.

" – Aang." Aang finished sadly. "I only wanted to say hi!" he shouted at the rocks.

Suki walked over and frowned. "Why did he run away?"

"I don't know," Aang replied uncertainly. "It was like he was scared of me."

Curious. Was the boy trying to hide his earthbending? Either way, it didn't matter since they would probably never see him again. "He had to be running to somewhere," Azula commented aloud. "A village, perhaps."

"A village…with a market!" Aang smiled sunnily. "Which means no rocks for dinner! Come on guys!"

"But I worked hard to find those nuts!" Sokka moaned.

* * *

><p>"Ty Lee, this is Master Piandao," Mai droned through the necessary introductions. "Master Piandao, this is my old friend Ty Lee."<p>

The princess' young friend smiled prettily at him. "Hi! I'm Ty Lee," she chirped. "Aren't you the master swordsman who deserted from the Fire Nation army?"

Lady Mai rolled her eyes at Ty Lee's (Piandao faintly recognized the name as belonging to another noble family, but he honestly couldn't imagine the bubbly young girl as a noblewoman) rather blunt question, but Piandao merely smiled indulgently. "I am."

"Alright. Your aura's very nice." Aura? What was the girl talking about? "So where are we going now, Mai?"

Lady Mai was holding a map. She pointed at a small red dot. "The little mining village there. It is the nearest place in the vicinity with a strong Fire Nation presence. We'll go there to re-stock on supplies and see if there is any useful information on the Avatar's whereabouts."

The princess' words jerked Piandao back to the reality of the situation. He was not traveling with the two girls for fun, but to the capture the Avatar. Not for the first time, Piandao wondered why Prince Zuko had given the princess that white lotus piece. Surely the young prince did not mean for the Avatar to actually be captured or killed – but it was difficult to tell. Shyu had inducted the young prince into the Order of the White Lotus because he had believed that Prince Zuko had a nobility of character and desire for peace the rest of the royal family lacked, however, Piandao could not honestly say that he was perfectly sure Prince Zuko would choose the good of the world over the good of his family.

Which brought him to the reason for his choice to join the princess in the first place. The most important reason was so that Piandao could actually see the Avatar for himself, and, if possible, protect him from captivity. The master swordsman was skeptical of the rumors that had emerged of the Avatar's return, even with the massacre of Kyoshi Island. Ozai was a madman, and he would have probably burned the island even if the Avatar wasn't there.

The other reason was the young princess intrigued him. She was a clearly intelligent, if indifferent, young woman, and the daughter-in-law of Crown Prince Iroh to boot. Why would such an important figure be sent on such a dangerous mission? Even if she had been given the mission, surely she could have avoided it if she truly wanted to.

"Master Piandao?" Said princess' unnervingly observant eyes were locked onto him.

Piandao forced himself to smile pleasantly. "Yes, my lady?"

"I asked if you have any objections to where we are traveling."

"I do not."

Mai climbed atop her komodo rhino. "Then let's go."

* * *

><p>Sokka was sulking. They had found the hypothetical village the earthbender came from, and eaten a proper dinner. They had also bumped into the mysterious earthbender himself, who turned out to be named Haru. Apparently, the Fire Nation had arrived a long time ago, and captured all the earthbender in the village, including Haru's father. The Fire Nation treated the rest of the villagers cruelly as well, forcing them to pay unfair taxes, treating them like savages, and so on. After what happened on Kyoshi Island and the raids on his own tribe, Sokka was only surprised that the Fire Nation monsters hadn't killed the earthbenders.<p>

But what Sokka was sulking about was that Haru and Suki had gone on a walk after he showed them the barn! Suki! With Haru! How unfair was that?

Sokka had risked his life to get Suki out of the burning ruins of Kyoshi Island, comforted her whenever he noticed her getting moody, mediated her arguments with Azula (and _anyone_ could tell you that trying to get Azula to calm down was risky at the least), and hunted for her dinner. The fact that said dinner was composed of inedible rocks/nuts was irrelevant. The point was that he had done so much more for Suki than that scaredy-cat, girly-haired _Haru_.

Humph. He hadn't gotten so much as a kiss on the cheek for his efforts, while she had accepted Haru's offer to go on a romantic moonlight stroll the first chance she had. And she still hadn't come back!

"Sokka, there is no moon tonight."

Had he said that out loud? He probably had, because Azula was looking at him with a vaguely amused expression. "How would you know?" he shot back angrily. Tui and La, had she heard everything he was thinking?

"I'm a waterbender. I can _feel_ the waxing and waning of the moon." Azula was perched on top of a nearby haystack. On the other side, Aang and Appa were fortunately already asleep. "And to answer your question, yes I did." Sokka groaned. He really needed to stop saying his thoughts out loud.

His annoying little sister smirked at him. "If you like Suki so much, why don't you tell her?"

"No way!" Sokka rejected the idea right off the bat. "The worst to do is to tell her that I like her! What if she rejects me?" He shook his he empathetically. "What I need is a romantic getaway, a bunch of flowers, a –"

He narrowly dodged the flying hay. "Hey!"

"Yes, hay. Now go to sleep, Sokka."

* * *

><p>"What!" Suki was aghast as Haru's mother tearfully told her that her son had been taken by soldiers in the night. "How?"<p>

The old woman shook her head. "I don't know. I don't even know how they knew that he is an earthbender in the first place." She gave a hopeless wail. "My son, my son…"

Suki, on the other hand, did. She put down the pot of water she carried and rushed back the barn, where her companions were packing. For a moment, she thought she saw Azula grinning at the sight of her, which was a truly horrific thought.

Suki swallowed. It went against all her morals to ask the other girl for help after everything that had happened, but she had to admit that Azula was probably the cleverest in their group. If anyone could find a way to save Haru, she could. "Azula?"

"Yes?" She thought she heard a lazily triumphant tone in Azula voice. "Do you have something you need help with, Suki? Perhaps involving a _boy_?" There was clear emphasis on the last word, but Azula's eyes flickered to her brother rather than remaining on Suki.

How did she know? "Haru was captured by the Fire Nation soldiers for earthbending," she blurted out. "We have to save him."

"No we don't." Azula didn't even bat an eyelash as she continued strapping their clothes onto Appa's saddle.

Suki felt her temper rise. She should have known. "Sokka?"

Sokka looked at his sister out of the corner of his eyes. "Uh…I'm with Azula on this one, Suki. I mean, she does have a point. We need to leave before anyone realizes that Aang is the Avatar. Besides, it's not our fault Haru was captured. We didn't tell anyone he is an earthbender!"

"But I did!" Suki burst out. "Yesterday, Haru and I passed an old man who was being buried in the mines. I persuaded him to save the old man with his earthbending, but the old man turned in him to the Fire Nation." She couldn't abandon Haru the same way she abandoned Kyoshi Island.

"Then take care of it yourself," Azula snapped. "Stop trying to make us take responsibility for everything."

"If you had anything close to a heart you would help," Suki spat back.

"I think we should help Haru," Aang ventured.

Suki felt a surge of hope for the first time. Azula flat out refused to listen to her, and she didn't think Sokka could convince Azula of anything she didn't wanted to be convinced of, but for whatever reason, the other girl had a soft spot where Aang was concerned. If Aang agreed with her, half the battle was won already.

"Aang, you don't need to feel obligated to do anything. Youweren't the one who got Haru imprisoned."

"But I'm the Avatar, aren't I?" Aang argued gently. "I disappeared for a century, and then – " He looked at her sadly. " – _that_ happened when I did appear. It's the least I can do to help Haru."

Azula threw down the clothes disgustedly. "Fine! _You _go be the great hero and save the earthbender. _I_'m staying here."

* * *

><p>The warden was falling over himself to flatter Mai. "If there's anything you need, just tell me, Your Highness," he simpered. "I hope you have a wonderful stay her with."<p>

Mai wrinkled her nose at the smell of the courtyard. Earthbenders weren't known for their love of cleanliness, but she was sure that at least some of the smell had to come from the revolting green porridge that was the fare here. For Agni's sake, even prisoners at the Boiling Rock were treated better. "What is in their food?" she asked.

"Oh, just the usual standard prison fare," the warden laughed maliciously. "But we mix it with seawater and add whatever dead animals we find the woods nearby. Decreases the cost of the prison, Your Highness."

Disgusting. Mai was contemplating what would happen if she pushed him into the ocean. The vile little man never knew how close he was to getting a good seawater bath because just then, two guards hurriedly walked over.

They both bowed low to her. "Your Highness."

Mai waved their hand to signal that they could rise. "What do you have to report?"

"We saw something that looked like a flying bison, Your Highness," one man said.

"Or a buffalo," the other added.

Mai frowned. The Avatar was an airbender, and flying bison were common to Air Nomads. But surely it couldn't be so easy. She had expected at least another couple of days before finding any useful leads.

The warden huffed. "Which was it, a bison or a buffalo?" he asked testily.

The first guard pondered the question. "I don't know, sir. _Is _there even a difference? But that's not the point."

"I'll decide the point, you fool!" the warden snapped as he reached a hand to push the guard over the edge of the railing. Suddenly, he gave a howl of pain as a steel grip enclosed on his wrist.

Piandao smiled coldly. "You mean, Her Highness will decide what the point is," he said as he released his grip.

The warden nodded feverishly as he nursed his injured wrist. "Yes. That's exactly what I mean. Her Highness will decide what the point is. Forgive me for my lapse."

Mai ignored the man's whimpers. "Did you see anyone with the flying bison?"

"No, Your Highness. Though the bison was flying to the rig, not away."

Why would the Avatar come to a prison rig? But Mai couldn't take any chances. "Take all of your men and search this entire place. If you see anything, report to me."

"Yes, Your Highness."

* * *

><p>Azula followed bickering trio quietly, making sure that they didn't notice her. Suki had convinced Aang and a grudging Sokka to help her with her hare-brained plan to save Haru, which meant that Azula naturally had to secretly follow them. She couldn't be sure that they wouldn't be captured by the Fire Nation, and if they were, they would need her help to escape.<p>

Coincidentally, the prison was afloat on an ocean. That would be good if it did end up in a fight. She could feel the tugging of the water even from where she stood. It would be easy to flood the area.

Suki, it seemed, refused to leave. While Azula conceded that it was unfair for the earthbenders to remain imprisoned in this miserable little rig, they needed to be on their way. Didn't the little chit understand that the best way help these men was to quickly allow the Avatar to master all four elements and end the war?

"I wish Azula was here!" Aang exclaimed. "She could just create a hurricane."

Suki and Sokka stared at him blankly.

"You know, so that we can steal the warden's keys when he tosses them aside in panic."

More blank stares. Then Sokka cleared his throat. "Since we can't save the earthbenders, we should leave before the Fire Nation realizes we're here."

"No." Suki's voice and body language were firm. "I'm not leaving."

Sokka sighed. "I know you want to help these people, Suki. I do too. But we can't let them capture Aang. You know what would happen –"

"I don't care!" Suki hissed at Sokka. "I'm not leaving until we free those earthbenders!" She made a frustrated sound. "I just don't understand why they refuse to fight back."

Maybe because they had nothing to fight back with? Earthbenders could hardly bend metal; that was one of the reasons their prisons were made of that exact substance.

"But they don't have anything to fight back with," Aang said, echoing Azula's thoughts. "There's no earth here."

"Or is there?" Sokka questioned. He pointed at the distant smoke. "That smoke probably comes from burning coal. If we could get the coal up onto the surface, the earthbenders could have a way of defending themselves."

Suki's eyes lit up. "You're brilliant, Sokka!" she exclaimed.

Sokka blushed under her praise and mutter something indistinguishable.

"Yeah!" Aang took to the idea enthusiastically. "We can use the vents. I'll block all of them except for the one that leads up here, and then I can blast the coal up with air."

Azula, eavesdropping to the conversation, rolled her eyes. She had only taken a few looks at the earthbenders, but that was all she needed. Lack of earth wasn't the only problem here. The earthbenders hadn't been imprisoned for just a day or two; they were old prisoners who already understood that resistance could do them no good. She wondered if she should go out and stop this foolish plan before it got them caught, but then rejected the idea. Suki didn't look like she would leave without getting the earthbenders to fight back, and more importantly, Aang would stay with her. A naive warrior she could lose, the Avatar she could not. With the looks of the current situation, it would be better for her to hide instead of getting dragged into the foolish rebellion.

* * *

><p>Mai calmly walked down the corridor. Her steady footsteps resounded throughout the metal walls, echoing back at her.<p>

No sign of the sky bison. It must have been quite a clever beast to have hid itself so well. But surely no beast would be able to conceal itself from their search for so long, which meant the Avatar had obviously hidden it. Now where would a person hide a creature as large as a sky bison?

The loud crash from the courtyard suddenly banished all thoughts of the sky bison. Something had happened there. Something big. Mai immediately turned in the opposite direction and began walking at a faster pace. Must be Zuko's influence, she thought. Stupid, noble, impulsive prince was obviously rubbing off on her.

"Mai!" Ty Lee caught up to her. "What's happening?"

"Do I look like I know?" Mai replied tensely.

Ty Lee flipped past her. "Let's hurry then!" she laughed. "Must be exciting." She peeked back at Mai from past the corner. "Besides, one of those earthbenders is rather cute."

Mai grimaced, but didn't reply. They were already at the top of the courtyard, Master Piandao rushing toward them on the other side. Below, the warden and his men were being beaten by the earthbenders using a pile of coal. How did the coal get up here? The earthbenders didn't bend it up them themselves, that was for sure. So someone had to have helped. Perhaps one had slipped away and bent the coal here.

Then Mai's eyes caught on a boy, smaller than the rest…a boy who was bending an enormous funnel of air, and everything made sense: the sky bison, the coal's appearance, the prisoners' rebellion, the airbending.

_The Avatar_.

She pointed him out to Ty Lee and Piandao. "That one. He's the Avatar."

* * *

><p>Aang wasn't sure where the knives had come from, but they were hurled toward him with remarkably good aim, and the blades were unmistakably sharp and deadly. He threw up a blast of air that repelled them at the last minute, but the momentary distraction made the tornado vanish.<p>

Darn. Now the warden wouldn't toss his keys.

But he couldn't afford to focus on his disappointment, not with the knives that were coming at him again. He defended himself against them with his staff, blocking the sharp blades.

Suddenly there was a voice next to him. "Hi, Avatar. Aren't you adorable?"

"What?" Aang whipped his head around to look at the smiling brown-haired girl, then yelped as his arm suddenly fell limp at his side. "What did you do to me?"

The girl only giggled and jabbed at his other arm. His staff dropped onto the ground. "I poked your pressure points, silly. Oh don't worry," she said, seeing his expression. "I'm not going to hurt you."

No? Fortunately for Aang, at that moment a boomerang smacked into the back of the girls head, knocking her out.

"Gotcha!" Sokka shouted triumphantly as he ran up. "Come on Aang," he urged. "Use your airbending." The tide was starting to turn against them as the soldiers regrouped and began to attack.

"I can't!" Aang replied, frustrated, as he waved his arms with no reaction from the air. "That girl, she did something…I can't access my bending now!"

* * *

><p>Azula cursed as she saw the earthbenders begin to lose ground. The sudden appearance of the three people had really affected the flow of the fight. They were obviously non-benders from the way they attacked, but they had extraordinary skill. The long-suffering earthbenders and her own ragtag group would quickly be defeated if she didn't act.<p>

So naturally, her first order of business was to take out these three. In the chaos, she had silently crept behind the knife-thrower; the acrobat had been neutralized by Sokka, so she didn't need to worry about her, and she didn't feel like taking her chances with the master swordsman. She was counting the fact that the element of surprise and close-range combat would help her.

As she closed in on her prey, Azula focused on the waves of the ocean she could hear behind her. She lifted her arms up starting at the shoulder, and then pushed with all her might. A roar behind her signaled that her plan had worked, as the metal walls swayed with the pressure of thousands of gallons of water. People were already noticing, and Azula realized she only had split seconds before the knife-thrower turned around. The metal wall was simply too strong to be collapse under merely the weight of the water.

Time to alter the plan slightly. Azula dropped to the ground – and just in time, because several shruikens narrowly missed the artery on her neck. She pressed her hands together to force the enormous ice blade to slice through the metal wall, hearing success in the loud creak as the metal shattered. Seawater swept in and doused the entire courtyard as well as everyone in it.

The knife-thrower was unfazed by the entire situation, and Azula had to roll over to avoid several more blades that pinned themselves to the floor next to her. If it was anyone else, they would probably be forced on the defensive, but Azula was never one to sit back and watch others attack. Instead, she formed ice daggers of her own, forcing the knife-thrower to take several steps away to dodge them.

They were now near the edge of the broken metal; the slightest movement could throw either of them off. Naturally, this worked in Azula's favor. The other girl's temporary lapse in knife-throwing had given her time to leap up. She grabbed the pale left wrist, but her efforts were blocked as the other girl twisted around so that she faced Azula.

Bright gold met shocked amber. The girl's jaw dropped. "A-Azula?" she stammered hoarsely.

Azula took advantage of this to push her over the edge, hearing a _plunk_. Looking over the edge, she frowned. How had that girl known her name? She thought back to the face, but though it was vaguely familiar, she couldn't identify it with a name. Then she remembered the other girl's skill with knives. It had to be –

She staggered back as a blade cut her left arm near the shoulder. Instinctively clutching it, she could feel the warm blood seeping out already, staining her clothes scarlet.

It had to be the master swordsman, and indeed it was. The man moved quickly and efficiently, the sword acting as an extension of his arm rather than a tool. He was obviously both experienced and talented. This wasn't good. Azula quickly moved away from a second strike, which clanged as it hit the metal. As the swordsman took a moment to pull the sword out of the metal it had cut in – that wasn't good either, how much strength did this man have to cut through steel? – Azula caught a glimpse of something white and round on the hilt of the sword. It was a white lotus. The lotus triggered a memory, but Azula didn't have time to ponder this as the swordsman lashed out at her yet again, missing her other arm by a hair's breadth. She knew wouldn't be able to hold against the swordsman for long, not with his skill and her injured arm. This had to end quickly.

Between dodging the strikes and avoiding being thrown overboard, Azula managed to create a water whip with her uninjured arm, coiling it around the sword. She jerked at the weapon. The swordsman pulled it back in the opposite direction. Did he think that she was trying to take his weapon away from him?

Azula twisted her hand so that the water whip hardened to ice around the sword instantaneously, growing so cold it began to frost the air around it. That's when Azula jerked at the sword for the last time, making the sword's blade shatter as the ice exploded.

She winced as she felt shards embed themselves in her arm. At least the swordsman had been pulled over by the explosion.

Now to end this before it got out of control.

* * *

><p>"We will take back our village! We will take back all our villages! We will make the Fire Nation regret stepping foot in the Earth Kingdom!" Tyro was shouting at the ragged crowd, who cheered enthusiastically.<p>

They were on a barge back to the village. Suki smiled at the newly-inspired villagers. Combining their strength, they had thrown the warden and guards overboard. The prison was virtually destroyed now, and the earthbenders free.

"Come with us." Haru offered from next to her. His green eyes were sincere.

Suki only shook her head. "You have to take over from here." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sokka busily glaring at the other boy, and had to hide a smile. "Your destiny is to free the Earth Kingdom. Mine is to protect Aang." Her gaze drifted over to the young Avatar, who was tossing pieces of coal in the air for Momo's amusement. He was the main reason she would stay with the group at any cost: protecting the Avatar and keeping Kyoshi alive were the last two commands Oyaji had given. Suki swore to uphold both.

"That's him, isn't it?" Haru asked. "The Avatar."

Suki nodded silently. Then she saw the last member of their unlikely little gang, and her conscience nagged at her for a moment. "Excuse me, Haru, I need to do something."

* * *

><p>Azula gritted her teeth as she pulled the last piece of metal out of her arm. Now she could work on bandaging the bloody mess. She eyed the bandages. Bandaging herself with only one hand would be awfully difficult.<p>

"I've got it," a voice offered. Suki had walked over and began to help Azula dress her wounds.

"Why are you here?" Azula came off as more hostile than civil.

"I want to apologize."

That caught Azula off guard. Her golden eyes narrowed. "Apologize?"

"Yes." Suki looked Azula in the eye. "I want to apologize for what I said to you – for _everything _I said to you. I know that we'll probably never be good friends, but," here she swallowed, "I was wrong to say that you didn't care about us. That you're heartless." She finished binding the wound, and put the remaining bandages on the shelf. "You do have a good heart, Azula, even if you try to hide it under a layer of indifference. You showed me that when you came to help us even though you didn't need to. I know that there was no way we would have won without your help."

"I –" For a moment Azula considered telling Suki that the only reason she had even gone to the rig was because she couldn't afford for the Fire Nation to capture the Avatar, but there would be nothing gained if she did do that. Better to the let the other girl think that she was good person. After all, that could only prove beneficial in the end. "Thank you, Suki."

For the first time, Suki gave Azula a genuine smile.

* * *

><p>Mai spat out a mouthful of saltwater as Piandao pulled her up. Ty Lee was already huddled under several blankets, toasting her hands next to a fire. Some of the few guards who were less injured were searching for their comrades or carrying the ones with more severe wounds. The warden was nowhere to be seen. At least Azula had done that for her, Mai thought bitterly.<p>

Mai's mind was still whirling as she sat next to Ty Lee, barely aware of the blankets Piandao heaped on her. How had Azula come here? Why was she traveling with the Avatar? How was she a _water_bender, of all things? Mai was sure that the royal family had no waterbending ancestors. In fact, she did not recall a single royal for six generations who had not been a firebender. Everyone knew that Fire Nation royalty descended straight from the line of Agni, everyone knew that the family as blessed by the ancient fire spirit. So how did Azula end up a waterbender?

Because Mai was sure that the girl who had flung her into the sea was Azula. The lattice of faint scars across her face and the plain Earth Kingdom clothes couldn't hide that fact; ever since they first met at the Royal Academy all those years ago, the other girl had been unforgettable. She was not particularly unique the way Ty Lee had been (Ty Lee the only one who wore pink and cartwheeled to class) but she stood out in a way that no one else Mai ever met had. Everyone had lamented that such a remarkable child could not firebend.

Piandao sat between the two girls, examining what was left of his sword. "The waterbender was untrained," he remarked.

"Why would you say that?" Azula wasn't the type to laze around instead of training. And it took skill to take out both herself and Piandao, even if Azula did have surprise on her side.

"For one, her bending style was extremely unorthodox for a waterbender. In fact, it resembled the style of a firebender would move more than the style of a waterbender. So we may assume that she had no formal instruction, in waterbending at least." Piandao held out the remnants of his sword. "Second, the method she used to destroy my sword was both crude and precise. She shattered my blade by freezing the ice to extraordinary temperatures, and then making it explode. But you can see from what is left of my sword that the freezing was uneven. A trained master would not do something like that. Only an untrained, but naturally talented waterbender would do such a thing."

Firebender's movements. No formal training. Crude yet precise. That fit Azula perfectly.

Then Ty Lee spoke up. "Mai?"

"What?"

"I think I saw Azula. And I think _she_ was the waterbender."

"That's makes two of us then."

"You did too? But why would Azula be with the Avatar. Didn't she…" Ty Lee trailed off as she shuddered, though Mai wasn't sure if it was the wet coldness or the memory that made Ty Lee shudder. "If that's really her, what do we do now, Mai?"

Mai's amber eyes hardened as she reached her decision. "Whether the waterbender is or is not Azula, from now on, she is our first priority. If we find her, we kill her."

She was aware of Ty Lee's horrified reaction, but she ignored it. If Azula was alive…that meant that everything that had happened to her was for nothing. Her unhappy marriage, losing Zuko, it was all for _nothing_.

Mai couldn't allow that. She could_n_'_t_.


	7. The Winter Solstice

**Title: **Frozen Fire: Waterbender

**Author: **Qwerky Qity

**Rating: **T

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

**Summary: **In another world, Azula was a prodigious bender. Just not a prodigious firebender.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 7: The Winter Solstice<strong>

After that horrifyingly _wet_ encounter with someone she once regarded as a friend, Mai had allowed Ty Lee to talk her and Piandao into going to Senlin Village, a nearby village the Fire Nation conquered recently. It was also conveniently in the direction the Avatar was last seen traveling in.

The princess-by-marriage enjoyed polishing her knives at night. If she was a firebender, she would be feeling terribly drowsy and tired, but as a non-bender, she liked having this private time to herself. Her knives were as much a part of her as fire was a part of a firebender. They protected her, appeared and moved at her command. Mai never felt safe without concealing numerous blades on her person, ready to fly out and attack as soon as she commanded them to. In the poisonous cesspit that made up the center of the Fire Nation Capitol, her knives had intimidated more than one potential assassin from doing his work.

Today though, Ty Lee was hovering around Mai like a lost koala-puppy. From long experience with similar situations, Ty Lee's behavior meant that her over-excitable friend wanted to say something but didn't actually dare to bring it up. More often than not, this hovering was terribly distracting and annoyed Mai more than what Ty Lee actually wanted to see. But if she wanted to get rid of this, Mai was going to have to make the first move, or else the knives she were polishing would soon find themselves doing something else instead. She didn't want to hurt Ty Lee, but her knives had a mind of their own when faced with something like Ty Lee's hovering.

"What's wrong?"

Ty Lee fidgeted again before she spoke. "Was that really Azula?" she finally asked.

Oh Agni not this again. They had debated, argued, and tried to logically talk out that problem for at least a thousand times. However, like past times they had done so, none of the thousand times actually stuck in Ty Lee's lucky-go-happy mind. "Ty Lee," Mai enunciated clearly, "I only saw her face for a split-second. I am about as sure as you are that that was Azula." Which depending on Ty Lee's level of confidence in her aura-seeing abilities could mean anything.

"So it was Azula."

"Fine. It was Azula." Mai set down the knives heavily on the beautifully carved table. "Does it make a difference?"

"You said that we have to kill her!"

Ty Lee's voice carried a note of accusation Mai hadn't heard in a long time. By nature, the acrobat was slow to become angry to sad, and quick to become cheery and optimistic. The last time Mai had heard Ty Lee so upset was when some stupid nobleman's son had accidentally stepped on Ty Lee's fox-kitten. The boy had apologized profusely but Ty Lee was inconsolable when the small animal died of its injuries.

The fox-kitten had been a gift from Azula, who had seen the tiny creature in a petting zoo, where it had been declared a runt, unlikely to survive. The young princess had rescued it and given it to her friend, whom she knew just loved tiny animals, and Ty Lee had been delighted. After Azula's…disappearance, she had treasured it even more. Mai forcibly pushed the memory from her mind. And it wasn't like Azula liked small animals either. She just knew Ty Lee liked them. Mai couldn't afford to be distracted if she wanted to convince Ty Lee. Ty Lee was different from others in that she was not illogical, she was unlogical. Ty Lee trusted her intuition and emotions more than reasoning, which was sometimes amusing and sometime baffling. "Is there a reason not to?"

"But Azula's our friend!" Ty Lee's grey eyes were wide with emotion. "If that is Azula, then you can't just kill her!"

"What I said wasn't a request, Ty Lee. What I said was an order from your princess. It is treason to disobey your princess." Technically talking back to your princess could be cause for punishment as well, but everyone let those things slide when it came to Ty Lee. Ignoring proper etiquette was a part of her Ty Lee-ness.

Agni, Ty Lee must really be rubbing off on her if she was using a word like that.

"Then I'll have commit treason, won't I?" Ty Lee shot back. "I know that you're upset about what Zuko did, but you can't kill Azula. That won't help anything!"

Mai stood up to look her friend in the eye. "How exactly did Azula die? Or rather," she corrected, "how was she said to have to have died?"

"I don't know." Ty Lee frowned in confusion. "Zuko said that their father attacked her and killed her, and no one's seen Azula since then, so everyone assumed that she died."

"And there you have the problem." Seeing that the acrobat hadn't connected the dots yet, Mai gave an internal sigh as she explained. "Firelord Azulon banished ex-prince Ozai for kinslaying and stripped him of his royal titles and honors. However, the only witness to the actual act of murder was Prince Zuko, and he was also critically injured while trying to protect his sister."

"So?"

"So," Mai pressed on, "what do you think would happen if Zuko was found wrong and Azula turned out to be alive?"

Ty Lee thought for a moment. "I dunno…Her father wouldn't be guilty of kinslaying?" she guessed.

"That barely scratches the surface. If word – and worse, living evidence – gets out that Azula is alive, that her father didn't actually kill her, Ozai's allies could easily twist the situation to seem like someone was trying to discredit Ozai. At that time, unless Firelord Azulon can find proof that Ozai committed high treason or the equivalent, he will be forced to reinstate him as prince." Mai's lips curled in distaste at the thought. "I'm sure that Ozai is clever enough to take advantage of the situation. He will declare the Firelord unfit for rule and try to usurp control of the throne. He will punish Zuko for going against him. When that happens, we will all be in danger.

"That's why we need to kill Azula. If we can end her before anyone discovers her existence, the status quo can be preserved. No one will be hurt."

"No one…" Ty Lee echoed softly. "Are you sure you can do it, then? Are you sure you can just kill someone whose our _friend_?"

"If I have to."

* * *

><p>"No, don't stop here," Azula ordered. Aang, Sokka, and even Suki had become accustomed to obeying Azula's commands, at least within what they considered a "reasonable" range, generally meaning that no one got hurt. "And Aang – don't look down. The winds are strong today, we need you to focus on getting us out of it."<p>

In actuality, the winds were not that much stronger than they were yesterday, but she didn't want Aang to make another unnecessary stop. Beneath them lay a patch of charred land, blackened with burnt tree stumps. No birdsong, no movement, she could neither see nor hear anything from below. It was the type of dead land that would draw curious boys like Aang and Sokka to land on. Even if the only thing they would see was the burned landscape that would, no doubt, disturb them.

More importantly, there was a Fire Nation emblem on the flag at the village next to the scarred forest. They had been fortunate thus far in evading or defeating potential captors but who knew what would happen if they acted carelessly. Besides, Mai could be anywhere, and Azula was hardly eager to meet-up again with her "old friend".

If the knife-thrower was Mai, the acrobat Sokka knocked out had to be Ty Lee, which left the identity of the last, the swordsman, a mystery, though Azula barely dwelled on that particular fact. Mai and Ty Lee were here, trying to capture the Avatar. Immediately, Azula could infer several things from that fact.

First, the actual idea of sending the three on the mission could not have originated with the Firelord, though he was the one to give the command. Simply put, Azula could not imagine the Firelord, a firebender, thinking to send three nonbenders on such a vital mission, especially when it went against the Avatar, known as the greatest of all benders.

Second, for the Firelord to agree to this mission, the person who suggested the idea must be very important – perhaps a trusted advisor – and to have brought up some convincing points. The former was because the Firelord would have no reason to listen to the theories of a low-level lackey, the second was because she was sure that Firelord Azulon and Crown Prince Iroh, both having fought on battlefields for half their lives, would not simply accept the word of an advisor.

And lastly was that the Firelord or his advisor must have complete confidence in the abilities of Mai, Ty Lee, and the swordsman. This was the point that stumped Azula. The swordsman was of an age that he had probably been in the army, which would have allowed the higher-ups to see his evident talent. Of course, he could have been given the mission and chosen his companions, but Azula doubted that two teenage girls would have been his partners of choice. More importantly, how did whoever planned this know that Mai and Ty Lee could fight? She had been sure that their training was a secret, something she had started when she realized she couldn't firebend. So much had changed over the course of seven years.

But that was all speculation. The more important point was if the situation truly became dire, could she defeat them again? If she evaluated their skills from the fight on the prison rig, where she had consecutively fought Mai and the swordsman and threw both overboard, she would guess that yes, she could probably hold out against them. But then again, she had the element of surprise on her hand. Mai's momentarily shock was what allowed her to lapse in her attack, just like the swordsman's underestimation of her abilities was why she had been able to shatter his sword. And Sokka had certainly caught Ty Lee by surprise. If it was a fair fight, or worse, the odds would dramatically decrease in her favor. And the enemy was more numerous and would have an easier time disguising themselves, but Azula could hardly call on Fire Nation troops or make Appa disappear.

This was all very problematic. Ozai could be dealt with easily; his arrogance and cruelty made him easy to predict. Besides, she _knew_ him, even after all these years. Mai and Ty Lee…Azula hadn't recognized them at first, much less immediately accurately gauged their true ability. Sure she remembered that Mai had excellent aim and Ty Lee was very flexible, but a lot could change. And the swordsman was a complete wild card.

"Where are we going?" Sokka was looking at the map again. "Er…is this north?"

Azula frowned. In fact, considering the position of the sun, she had a sneaking suspicion that this was _not_ north, but surely Aang… "Aang," she asked in a sickly sweet voice, "is this way north?"

From Appa's head, she heard Aang give a nervous laugh. "Uh, guys, actually, um, thisisn't north."

"Aang, we need to be going north! This is _east_." Sokka exclaimed, throwing down the map. "We're going north to the North Pole, remember? Not east to the Fire Nation!"

Sokka was right, Azula realized with as her heart abruptly leapt to her throat. East would bring them to the Fire Nation islands, where it would only be easier for them to be captured and sent to the Capitol. Even Aang, naïve and emotional as he was, had to know this. "Aang, what's going on?"

Aang turned around with a guilty look on his face. His eyes darted furtively around looking for support; naturally, he got none. "Well," he started, "I had a dream last night. Avatar Roku's dragon came to see me, and he told me that Roku wants to talk to me. So we have to make it to the Fire Temple so I can talk to Roku. We have to get there before sunset today; today's the solstice, and he can only talk to me today."

"And you didn't tell us?" Azula demanded angrily. "Aang, you can't just make decisions like this on your own."

Aang hung his head. "I was sure that you would get mad at me and wouldn't let me go. And Monk Gyatso always said that it was easier to ask for forgiveness than permission." He gave a hopeful smile that quickly wilted under Azula's glare.

"Not this time!" Azula snapped at the brainless airbender. "Turn around right away; we're close enough to land to be able to stop this foolishness." If she had to take a chance between setting foot on the homeland and potentially attracting attention in the Earth Kingdom, she'd choose the Earth Kingdom.

"But I have to talk to Avatar Roku! It's really important! There was some comet –"

"Comet?"

Aang nodded vigorously. "There was a comet in the sky in my vision. Roku wants to talk to me about that."

Azula didn't have to be a genius to know what the comet meant. If the previous Avatar thought it important enough to talk to Aang about – for Aang to risk his life about – then it could only be one comet, the one Firelord Sozin had used to eradicate the Air Nomads in an attempt to root out the Avatar. Sozin's Comet could have an undeniably significant impact on the state of things. Azula weighed the possibilities. "If Avatar Roku wants to talk to you about something important, I think that we should listen. Continue."

There was silence, and then Aang grinned broadly.

Shaking his head, Sokka said, "I never thought I'd see the day my little sister did something stupid and dangerous for a change. I'm so proud of you!" He lapsed into fake sobbing onto Suki's shoulder. The warrior patted his shoulder awkwardly. She was staring disbelievingly at Azula.

Azula groaned and massaged her temples. "You're giving me a headache, Sokka."

* * *

><p>It was nearing sunrise when Mai walked out with Ty Lee, Piandao, and a small company of soldiers. She really only wanted to stroll around the village, but the captain had demanded that a guard follow her. He had said that it was too dangerous; what if someone tried to hurt her? It was <em>much<em> too dangerous. How repetitive.

"I like dangerous," Mai had replied in a monotone. She was stuck in a hated marriage, the love of her life had abandoned her for nothing, she was given a mission she suspected was doomed to failure…why not add some angry peasant with a pitchfork into the equation? She twirled a knife in her hand absently. Even if it _was_ dangerous, she could protect herself.

The captain clearly dreaded what would happen to him if she was injured on his watch. Lu Ten may hate her and long to be free of their farce of a marriage, but she was still a princess, and she doubted her husband would let such a thing go unnoticed. He had to keep protect the royal family's prestige.

She stopped in the center of the village. A slight wind blew past her, ruffling the heavy fabric of her sleeves. The soldiers looked around anxiously, but there was nothing. That was strange. Her senses screamed that something, big and dangerous was in the vicinity, but she didn't see anything. The captain opened his mouth, no doubt to try to convince her to go back again "just in case", but then a loud shriek interrupted him.

The soldiers scrambled for safety, but Mai froze in place the sight of the enormous, six-legged black-and-white beast that had emerged seemingly from nowhere. It shrieked again and tore off the roof of a building. She heard Piandao stiffen next to her, as Ty Lee gave an astonished gasp. "What is that?"

The beast knocked down a pile of hay and shrieked again. Then, it seemed to catch sight of Mai's group because it began to come their way. The soldiers barely noticed that they were bumping into each other with panic. The captain tried to shout at them to form a line and attack, but they were scared out of their wits. "Retreat!" he finally said. This was the one order the men seemed to have no problem with, as they ran like headless duck-chickens to find somewhere safe.

"Come on, my lady," Piandao said to her as he glanced at the beast. Mai had frozen in place at the sight of the monster. "It moves quickly."

"No." Mai wasn't sure why she was feeling so foolhardy today, but why not take a chance with her life? It wasn't like it could get any worse. "Let's see if we can fight it." She raised her hand, the glint of three blades shining in the rising sun.

Just then, the spirit lunged at Ty Lee, who yelped and cartwheeled away. But the black-and-white beast followed her, ripping away poles and houses in the way, intent on its prey. It ignored Piandao's shouts completely. As nimble as Ty Lee was, it simply was too difficult to evade a gargantuan spirit who wanted to grab her.

It was closing in on her, Mai realized with a jolt. It was her idea to stay and fight; she couldn't let Ty Lee get hurt because of it. In fast succession, she flung three daggers at the thing; they bounced off it without even scratching the skin. But her actions had attracted the beast's attention.

Quicker and more agile than Mai had expected, the thing had turned around and scooped her up in one of its gigantic hands and began running. She twisted, but it was of no use. The grip was like a thick steel chain, impossible to break.

"Mai!" she heard Ty Lee shout behind her.

Well, at least her bubbly friend would get to live happily, Mai thought as she felt something shift around her.

* * *

><p>The captain looked ready to cry as he dropped white-faced and trembling into a seat. "The Firelord is going to have our heads," he moaned.<p>

Piandao put a cup of scalding tea in the other man's hands, shoving a second cup in front of a sniffling Ty Lee. The captain was a good man, the kind of person that the Fire Nation military sadly found itself lacking more often than not. He was fair to his subordinates, obedient to her superiors, but at the same time, kinder than many others would have been in his place. However, all of this would be useless in saving the man from execution if the Firelord found out that Princess Mai had been taken by a spirit.

"Calm down," he said gruffly. "Drink your tea."

The captain took a long shuddering drink before spitting it out. "What is this stuff? It's disgusting."

Piandao concealed a smile. That had been the effect he was going for. The tea leaves had been a gift from an old friend of his, a connoisseur of teas. He had called that particular brand "cheer-up tea", due to its ability to distract the drinker from the problem at hand. "Do you not like it?" he asked innocently.

Ty Lee glared at them from behind red-rimmed eyes. "Stop going off topic! We need to find a way to save Mai."

The captain shook his head sadly. "We looked everywhere, and couldn't even find its tracks."

"But we have to save her!" Ty Lee turned to Piandao with a pleading gaze. "Can't you think of something?"

Piandao sighed. He wasn't sure what that beast had been either, or why it had taken the princess, or where it came from. He didn't want to lie to the young girl but…"I'll try my best," he promised.

Just then a messenger hawk flew into the room. Piandao took its message, seeing that Ty Lee and the captain were in no shape to do it.

_The Avatar goes to Crescent Temple_.

It obviously came from one of their spies. Piandao didn't know whether to feel relieved that he didn't have to confront the Avatar again or anxious that he didn't because the young princess was being held hostage by a six-legged beast.

Princess Mai wasn't the kindest or most likeable girl he had met (those two titles would probably belong to Ty Lee) but nevertheless, he wouldn't wish such a fate on anyone. He sat down heavily, trying to think of a way to solve this problem.

* * *

><p>Far away from Senlin Village, ex-prince Ozai was drinking tea as well. His tea was very similar to Piandao's "cheer-up tea" (though he naturally had no way of knowing this). Barely more than heated leaf juice, he thought contemptuously, and disgustingly bitter heated leaf juice as well. But he had drank enough leaf juice under his <em>beloved<em> brother's encouragement; it wouldn't hurt to have a few more mouthfuls. Especially with that little yellow snake hidden on the golden patterns on the teapot.

He picked up the teapot again, pouring himself another cup, and another, and another, until the teapot was empty. Then, making sure that no one was watching him, he carefully opened the lid of the pot, noting that there was another miniature golden snake on the side of it. The opening was just wide enough to admit his hand. Probing in the soggy leaves, he found a small, dark shape. It was roughly the same color and texture as the tea leaves, and only someone looking for it could tell the difference. Anyone else would simply assume it to be another leaf.

Carefully, Ozai unfolded it, until it was as large as a letter size sheet of paper, with the neat characters burned onto it with firebending. A clever trick: ink would wash off in the tea, but by burning the letters through the sheet of paper, the message would be preserved. It was a simple message: third act, third scene, third line of _Love Amongst the Dragons_. A line then, to show that he was willing to continue with whatever the sender of this message had planned. It was quite obviously meant for him; Ozai was certain that no one else on the ship knew that play as well as he did. After all, not every man had an wife who dragged them to watch the Ember Island Players butcher it every year. Even now, long after those visits had ended, Ozai could remember exactly what line the message referred to.

He lit the paper on fire and dropped the ashes back into the teapot, sitting calmly on the uncomfortable metal stool in his cabin. Soon, they would land on Fire Nation soil, and he couldn't deny that some part of him was excited to be back on the homeland finally, after seven years of exile.

Just then, the door opened, and a soldier, barely more than a boy, stepped though. "Time to leave, sir," he said. "We have arrived, finally, after a voyage of great dangers."

Ozai eyed the boy. He didn't look like much, but this was his contact. "Yes," he agreed. "But you have performed well, and will receive your just reward."

The boy bowed and held the door open. "Then let us be on our way, my lord."

Ozai confidently walked out of the room and up the stairs, the boy trailing after him. When they reached the deck of the ship, Ozai saw the officer with the ruby ring. He inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement. The officer bowed and addressed the boy. "Take Lord Ozai to the waiting room."

The boy saluted. "This way, sir." Ozai had stiffened minutely at the officer giving him the title of "Lord" rather than "Prince" but he supposed that the man could hardly call him "Prince" with so many witnesses around. Who knew which one might be a spy of his father or brother? He took a deep breath to calm himself down. It would never do to let his anger out of control right now. No, he must bide his time and wait for the correct moment to strike, so that he could win, once and for all.

He followed the boy to what was the waiting room. Most prisoners would simply be sent to the cells, where they would be shackled and bound for shipment to the Capitol, but the Firelord obviously had no intention of letting commoners do such a thing to a prince, even one stripped of his titles and honors. All the better. As he entered the waiting room, he saw that two men were already sitting there sipping tea. When they saw Ozai, both men rose and bowed.

The boy quietly went out of the room and closed and latched the doors behind him.

Ozai sat down in the seat between the two, and noticed with a smug satisfaction that neither had sat down yet. "You may sit, Minister Ryuo, Lord Shan."

The Minister of Intelligence seated himself and poured Ozai another cup of tea, reminding the banished prince exactly where his brother had gotten his tea obsession from. Ryuo had been the Minister of Intelligence since the early days of Azulon, and was widely regarded as the most powerful man at court, second to only the Firelord. He was not a great firebender or general, but his political astuteness and large spy network ensured that no one could topple him from his position. Ryuo was well known for being cautious, rarely committing himself to the side of any faction in politics, though he developed more or less a friendship (based mainly on tea) with Iroh. Therefore, it was a great surprise for Ozai to see this man here.

Lord Shan was less of a surprise. Shan had been one of Ozai's old classmates in their shared boyhood, and one of his allies before his banishment. Ozai had known that Shan would be here since he saw the golden snake, the symbol of Shan's house.

Lord Shan glanced at Minister Ryuo, and began speaking. "It is good to see you again, Prince Ozai. I had hoped we might meet under more…fortunate circumstances, but it seems that we must adjust to fit the situation."

Ozai's interest was piqued. He knew what Lord Shan was planning. It was quite obvious, especially with the presence of the Minister of Intelligence, though Ozai was still slightly discomforted by the idea of the older man being present due to his close relationship with both the Firelord and Iroh. "Speak freely if you can."

Minister Ryuo seemed to guess Ozai's thoughts because he smiled grimly. "Not all of us are satisfied with the policies of the Firelord, Your Highness. There are those who believe that the Firelord, though great and honorable, is becoming old and should pass the reins to a younger generation and bring fresh blood and new ideas to the throne."

"Oh?" Ozai gave a calculatedly careless wave. "I am sure my royal father will gladly listen to any advice his Minister of Intelligence thinks appropriate."

Ryuo only laughed coldly. "I'm afraid that you are wrong, Prince Ozai. His Majesty has become fixed in his mindset, and he no longer listens to advice that contradicts his own beliefs. He was a great Firelord in his time, but everything can come to an end, and under Firelord Azulon, our policies have softened and our war efforts weakened." The man leaned forward to look at Ozai intently. "You, my prince, are the truly great leader we need at the head of our nation."

Ozai smirked. "Then where should we begin, Minister?"

* * *

><p>"Ugh." Mai grumbled unhappily as she got up in some weird forest glen. "Where did that stupid beast take me?" The beast itself was nowhere in sight, and this didn't seem like a cave where something like that would live. She glanced down at the ground. There were no tracks.<p>

Mai reached for a knife, and was startled to realize that it wasn't it. As she moved, she suddenly found that there were _no_ knives anywhere on her. This was impossible; even if the beast had taken her to somewhere and someone had taken out her knives, they had to have missed at least a few of them. She was certain that there was no one in the world who could take out all her knives so cleanly. But nevertheless, this gave her no clues as to where she had been taken.

And, she noticed, that it was no longer early morning. In fact, the sun was nowhere to be seen. The glen was only lit by an eerie light that came from nowhere, and everywhere, at the same time. She saw no tracks, heard no sound that could lead her to some escape route. Mai frowned.

A low hum sounded behind her.

Mai whipped around, reaching for her knives instinctively, and then cursing when she remembered that she had none on her. An ugly little monkey was sitting there, in a place she was sure had been empty before, and it was meditating. Wait – the monkey was meditating? Mai wondered briefly if she had been knocked out and gotten a concussion. Monkeys didn't meditate…did they?

"Where am I?," she said, feeling stupid for talking to a monkey.

The monkey opened one eye, looked at her, but then closed it and continued meditating.

"Wow. I've sunk so low that even hallucinated monkeys are ignoring me."

The monkey opened both eyes this time and gave an indignant squawk. "I'm not hallucinated!"

"Then who are you?"

The monkey _humph_ed and closed its eyes again.

Mai sighed and tried again. "Where am I?"

The monkey didn't reply.

"Where. Am. I."

No reply.

"Are you going to answer my question?"

The monkey gave a long-suffering groan and looked up. "Stop bothering me."

"Then tell where I am."

"The Spirit World! Can you not recognize it? Now stop bothering me." The monkey closed its eyes again and began humming loudly.

The Spirit World? Why was she here? Could that beast have been a spirit? "How do I get out?" she demanded at the monkey. But where there had been a monkey, there was now only empty air.

Just her luck. Mai groaned as she looked at the vast, noiseless woods around her. There was no way she could get back to the real world now. She sat back down on the rock the monkey had deserted. Nothing to do but wait.

She wasn't sure how long she had waited when she saw something moving in front of her. She looked up hopefully, but it was only a panda. The animal slowly made its way to her and began to nuzzle her leg. Mai pushed it away irritably. "Get away from me."

The panda gave her a hurt look with extraordinarily clever eyes, and suddenly Mai remembered the talking monkey. Maybe in the spirit world, not all animals were animals. Maybe this panda could help her go back home. "No, come back." It trotted up to her happily. "Do you have a name?" It nodded, or at least she thought it did. Mai wasn't sure how pandas nodded anyway. "What's your name?" She wouldn't be caught dead talking like this to any animal in the physical world, but it couldn't hurt to speak to a spirit that could help her, and was a lot more friendly than the meditating monkey.

The creature had scratched something onto the ground. "You're Hei Bai?" She hadn't actually expected the panda to have a name.

It nodded again and nudged at her.

"Do you want me to come with you?"

It walked a little away and looked back at her.

"I'll take that as a yes." Mai got up off her rock and followed the panda. The animal couldn't take her to anywhere worse than she already was in…could it?

* * *

><p>Zhao smirked as he saw the huge white bison flying to the Fire Temple. "Shoot the bison down," he commanded to the captain.<p>

"Yes, sir." The captain saluted and began organizing the enormous fireballs. Two firebenders stood at either side of the catapult, setting fire to the large rock.

"Fire!"

The fireball was launched at the bison, and the aim was perfect. Then, just at the last minute, it was deflected.

What? How did that happen? "Again," Zhao demanded.

The firebenders complied, and a second, then a third, then a fourth fireball was shot. None hit. The beast evaded some, and the other were deflected.

"Uh…what do we do now, sir?"

"Don't just look at me!" Zhao snarled. "Continue firing until you shoot that bison down!"

"But it's out of our range, sir. We can't get at it."

Zhao scowled. He picked up his telescope again.

The man on Ozai's ship had told him that the supposedly-dead Princess Azula was traveling on a bison, and it wasn't like there were many flying bison left. This had to her. He felt a smug laugh bubbling in his throat as he thought of what Prince Zuko's face would look like when he revealed to the world that the boy had been lying about his sister's death. That arrogant little princeling would regret crossing Zhao. He could feel his fingers itch at the memory of the princeling refusing to make the final blow in the Agni Kai, the humiliation of being let go by a _boy_.

It was time to get even with him.

"Set course for Crescent Island," he ordered the helmsman. "We'll catch them there."

* * *

><p>The team was frazzled after the close run-in with the fireballs, but luckily Appa and Aang managed to avoid the worst of it. Azula, though, was sure that whomever was firing knew that the Avatar was with them, and would have seen that they landed on Crescent Island. Which meant that they barely had any time before the Sages and soldiers on the island would be searching for them. Naturally, a distraction was in order.<p>

"Appa," Azula said to the bison, "fly away and try to mislead the ships. If it becomes too dangerous, come back here. Remember, don't let them see that you aren't carrying us on your saddle. And when you hear the whistle, come back."

The bison lowed, and flew away. Appa was astonishingly intelligent for an animal, and that almost made it worth traveling on such an extraordinarily distinctive beast.

"Where's Appa going?" Aang asked worriedly. "Why's he flying away?"

"Don't worry about it. We need to find Avatar Roku quickly." Azula thought it better if the others didn't realize that someone was chasing them. "Come on. We need to hurry." She glanced back at the harbor, where several battleships were beginning to move away from the blockade. It would take several minutes before they could reach the island, but that didn't mean that there were no forces within the temple itself. Fire Sages, while generally younger sons of impoverished nobility or men who had forsaken their outside life to serve the fire god Agni, were a force to be reckoned with (the latter more than the former, naturally), and they would have caught sight of Appa.

The center of the temple was just like Azula remembered from the visits in her childhood: an enormous, intimidating dark red room with thick, dragon-covered columns. Aang and Sokka both took a step forward, only for Azula and Suki, respectively, to grab them by the scruffs of their necks like disobedient tiger-wolf cubs. "Hold on," Azula hissed. "What if someone's there?"

"Who goes there?" a voice boomed.

Azula clapped a hand over Aang's mouth at exactly the right moment; he had just opened it to shout back at the elderly Fire Sage who was standing in the middle of the room. She exchanged meaningful looks with Suki, and they dragged the boys behind one of the columns.

"Answer me!"

Against all odds, the four managed to keep completely quiet. Eventually, fading footsteps hinted that the Sages had left. Azula let out a breath she didn't know she was holding as she let go of a squirming Aang. He backed up a few steps and rubbed the marks she had unconsciously clawed on his neck. Azula frowned internally; she should have more control than that.

"What was that for?" he demanded.

"The Sages aren't going to be friendly to us. In the century you've been gone, they've changed their allegiances to the Firelord, so we have to be wary of them."

Suki frowned. "How do you know that?"

"We need to go to the top of the temple," Azula continued, completely ignoring Suki's comment, "Avatar's Roku's statue should be there." At least, that was how she remembered it. Roku's statues had been smashed up by angry mobs when he was discovered to be a traitor, but that one had been hidden in a sanctuary, kept with all the other statues of past Avatars. She wasn't sure why Firelord Azulon hadn't just destroyed them all, but if they were untouched, it would be all the better for them. "Come on."

She led the four into an empty corridor. They walked quickly, but for all the confidence Azula exuded, she wasn't completely sure that she was going in the right direction. It had been so long since she went to the temple, after all, and the entire temple was like a veritable maze. And there were the rumors of secret passageways, which would be better for hiding from the Fire Sages, but she didn't especially want to try her luck when she had no idea if they were even true.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Sokka asked skeptically. He pointed at the dead end in front of her. Azula cursed silently and gestured for them to turn around and go the other way. She didn't want them to make a habit of questioning her choices, but at the same time, she didn't want to admit that she didn't know where to go.

"Avatar!"

Azula whipped around, poised to attack. She didn't want to reveal all her secrets at once, and was certain that her companions wouldn't approve, but if she was forced…

The Sage quickly sank to the ground, bowing to the Avatar. "I am Fire Sage Shyu. I mean you no harm!"

"Uh, I think he's telling the truth." Aang tugged slightly on Azula's still raised hand. "Besides, he's a Fire Sage, he can lead us to Roku's sanctuary."

The Sage nodded. "I can help you with that."

Azula grudgingly relaxed her stance. The Sage looked serious about helping them, and if he truly wanted to harm them, well, she hadn't been watching her back as much as she should have. She mentally scolded herself for letting the Sage sneak up on them "Let's go then."

Fire Sage Shyu led them through several obviously secret passages, considering the dust and grime that clung to the walls there. He led them through quickly, unhesitatingly, and it was fairly obvious that he knew where he was going, unlike her. "Avatar Roku created these passages more than a century ago, when he lived here," he explained. "He accidentally destroyed this temple when he was in the Avatar State, and he incorporated these passageways when he rebuilt the temple. If we go up from here, we should reach his sanctuary."

Should? Azula frowned. Did this man ever actually get to the sanctuary?

Aang was obviously impressed. "You knew Avatar Roku?"

"No," the Sage admitted, "but my grandfather did. He taught me to find and open these passageways, and when I realized that the Avatar had returned, I knew that I had to help him. The other Sages were forced to follow the Firelord when the new Avatar disappeared, but there still remain those whose loyalty remains where it should be – with the Avatar."

The speech was very nice, but…"How did you know that Aang needed to speak to Roku?" Azula questioned, wary of the Sage's intentions. Aang hadn't told anyone where they were going; he hadn't even told them until this morning. The Sage's foreknowledge of this was suspicious at best.

But he only smiled at her sadly. "You are not very trusting, are you?"

"Not when I have no reason to trust you," Azula replied swiftly. They climbed what seemed to be an endless set of stairs. Behind her, Sokka and Suki were huffing with effort. She herself was becoming exhausted. On the other hand, Aang was bouncing up the stairs three at a time in his normal excited manner.

There were times that Azula thought Aang and Ty Lee would become _very_ good friends if they ever had the chance.

The Sage abruptly stopped at the top of the stairway. "Oh no…"

"What?" Sokka peered up from behind the Sage. "Hey, isn't that one of those doors that only open up when you bend air at?"

"Not air," the Sage replied sadly. "Fire. And you must send fire at all five openings at the same time to open the sanctuary. Only five firebenders or a fully realized Avatar can do this."

The sun was acquiring its first tinges of red, and Azula felt anxiety begin to make itself known.

* * *

><p>"Hey! Panda! Where did you go?" Mai felt sort of stupid calling for a spirit panda, but it was her only hope if she wanted to leave this place, and it had abandoned her in some shrubby little landscape. Ugh. 'Only hope', Ty Lee was rubbing off on her more than she thought.<p>

Mai gave a bored sigh and then froze. There was a small panda right at the periphery of her vision. Could it be the panda? After all, this was the Spirit World. She quickly walked over, but there was nothing. No panda anywhere. Fine, she'd use its name.

"Hei Bai? Where are you?"

Something tugged at her robes, and Mai turned around. Two bright gold eyes peered up at her. "Who's Hei Bai?"

Mai backed up in shock as she saw the face the eyes belonged to. "What are you?" she gasped.

The girl sniffed. "How rude. I'm not a what, I'm a _who_. I'm Princess Azula, of course."

Yes, this certainly was Azula. Not the Azula, the scarred, hard-eyed waterbender who threw her overboard, who moved and acted like a trained killer. This was Azula as she was, before _that_ had happened. This was the Azula she had met at the Royal Academy, the little princess who gave Ty Lee the fox-kitten, the girl she remembered was her first real friend (Azula had introduced her to Ty Lee, the pink, bubbly thing no one else cared to get close to).

Mai felt a slight pang of something tug at her heart. "Hello, Your Highness," she said courteously. Young Azula's smile at that clearly showed that she had said the right thing. "Do you know where we are?"

Young Azula shrugged carelessly. "Does that matter? I'm going to show you something really cool now." She cupped her hands together, forming a flame.

Mai frowned. "You can firebend?"

"Of course I can. What member of the royal family can't?" Azula opened her mouth to say something else, but suddenly squeaked and burst into a column of flame. Mai's eyes widened as the fire flew across the Spirit World speedily, disappearing before her eyes. "Wait!"

A grunt at waist level alerted Mai to what had scared Azula off. It was the panda. "Was that really Azula?"

No answer. The panda didn't seem to like the young Azula, or whatever that girl was.

"Are you finally back to take me home?"

Another grunt. Mai took this as a 'yes'. "Lead the way."

The panda began slowly trudging along on a path that was not there a moment ago. Mai slowly followed.

* * *

><p>Five Fire Sages collapsed on the ground, unconscious, and as much as Azula hated to admit it, Suki had taken out two of them. The Kyoshi Warrior had the upper hand right now at hand-to-hand combat, though Azula was going to have to rectify that some point in the near future.<p>

Aang had entered the sanctuary safely, though, and now, their job was to wait and guard the entrance. She looked out the window again; the sun was just above the horizon. They could leave quickly.

The Fire Sage let out a breath. "Everything should be fine now." He adjusted his slightly singed robes. As his left sleeve pulled up slightly, Azula caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a white lotus piece. The white lotus, exactly as it had been on the swordsman's sword hilt and the one King Bumi was holding. This was the third time it had come up on their journey. It had to mean –

Suddenly, Azula felt something hot near her throat. Hot and familiar.

_"Daddy, please lemme go, I won't tell anyone, I promise, Daddy, I promise, promise, _promise_…"_

_A callused hand, pale fingers forming the blade of fire._

_The searing heat, tiny fire whips raining down on her face and neck._

_Zuko bursting into the room, pushing back their father. "Go 'Zula, I'll hold him back!"_

"Greetings, Princess Azula."

Azula slowly pivoted around to face a smug-looking man with large sideburns. "Is this how you treat your princesses?"

"Not usually," the man sneered, "but I'm afraid I'm going to need to be a little rude right now. By the way – Commander Zhao, at your service." He gave a little mocking bow.

"Let us go!" Suki snarled. "I'll show you exactly how badly you'll lose if you actually fight me like a man instead of the scum you are."

Zhao laughed softly. "Very spirited."

Suki spat in his face. It hit him right in the left eye.

Azula tensed. This was her chance.

Zhao wiped Suki's saliva away with his sleeve and looked at Suki with hatred. "Why you –"

This was her chance. Azula raised her left leg and kicked the soldiers holding Sokka and Suki over, knocking their legs down from beneath them. Suki immediately began fighting the soldiers that were guarding the entrance to the sanctuary while Azula turned to free the Sage. Wouldn't do to abandon allies, of course, and she was curious about the white lotus. Quickly, she dodged three blasts of fire from the one holding the Fire Sage – stupid thing to do, giving up his hostage in favor of attacking her – before knocking him down as well, hearing with slight pleasure the _crack_ of her fists against his head. She curled her wrists and pushed out, willing the ocean to rise against the temple and –

_Bang._

Blood dribbled out of the corner of her mouth as a heavy boot caught her in her back. She could hear Sokka shouting, and then the foot flipped her over. Zhao leaned in close. "Please don't fight back, Your Highness. I don't want to hurt you – too much, anyway." His breath was absurdly hot against her face.

Azula glared at him venomously. She should have gone for Zhao first. Her bloody hands curled into claws, and she pulled again at the rising tide within her. And rise it did, rupturing the century old stone walls and smashing Zhao against the far wall.

The man rose, snarling, and the battle began in earnest.

* * *

><p>The panda nudged at Mai's calves but Mai refused to get up. "Panda, you're taking me in circles."<p>

The panda ignored her. How exasperating.

"Hei Bai, you're taking me in circles."

The panda turned around, gave a look that said _Sorry?_ and looked at her playfully.

Mai groaned. "Just tell me how to get back."

The panda only nudged her playfully again, but it didn't try to show her how to get back. Great. The panda was ignoring her.

Mai looked around at the forest scene surrounding her. With a jolt she realized that this wasn't part of forest glen that the panda had led her through before. Instead this forest was full of half-burnt tree stumps and this forest floor was as ash-covered and barren as the other one had been fertile. It was abnormally quiet, like the Spirit World, but the silence was due to the lack of life and not the magic that was in the other place. This was the forest she had crossed on her way to Senlin Village.

"This is what you wanted to show me, isn't it?" she asked the panda quietly.

It nodded.

"The Fire Nation did this," she told it. "My country did this."

The panda looked around sadly and nosed the pile of ashes near a tree stump. Mai walked over and patted the animal's furry head.

She inhaled sharply as images rushed through her head. It was a small boy, no more than five, cradling a tiny squirrel-mouse with a burnt tail, trying to burrow in the tree's roots. His face was streaked with tears and dirt as he begged whomever was standing to let him go. Then there was a blast of fire that covered the entire scene.

"They killed him," Mai whispered. "Didn't they? He tried to protect his squirrel-mouse, and they killed him."

The panda sniffed at the ashes and then turned sadly away.

"I'm sorry." Mai didn't know what to say to the panda. What do you say to a spiritual panda who just showed you the cruelty of your country's military? "I didn't know that Fire Nation soldiers killed children."

The panda looked up at her knowingly.

"What do you want now?" Mai didn't like that she sounded defensive. No need to defend herself against a spiritual panda who couldn't even talk. "_I_'ve never killed anyone." The memory of her command to kill Azula stood out guiltily in her mind. She hoped the panda didn't hear it.

The panda tilted its head.

"Fine!" Mai threw her hands up. "I do want to kill someone. But I have a good reason." Wow, she was going crazy. Having a one-way conversation with a panda…that was something Ty Lee did. Not Mai, not cold, ice-princess Mai.

The panda was still staring at her discomfortingly.

Stupid panda.

Mai sighed. "Her name's Azula, and I guess we used to be something like friends. Alright," she conceded at the panda's stare, "we were friends. But then her father tried to kill her, and everyone thought she was dead, and if she turns out to be alive…you don't want to imagine the consequences. So she can't be alive."

The panda pushed at her lightly with its paw, as if saying _I don't believe you_.

Mai pushed back at it.

It pushed her again, this time more playfully than angrily.

Mai put her head in her hands. First feeling bad for lying to panda, then actually talking to it, then playing a push-push game. How the mighty have fallen. "Just get me home," she said through her fingers. Then an idea struck her. "Or get me my knives." If she even had one knife, that stupid panda would be annoying her like it was.

The panda made a noise that sounded like laughter. Then it began nudging the ashes on the ground again, his head ducked in sorrow. Then it raised its head mournfully to the sky and roared. It was a soft roar, but something about the way the panda raised its head…

Mai's eyes widened as she connected the dots. She jumped up. "You're the thing who took me here!" she exclaimed. "You're the six-legged black-and-white beast."

The panda didn't seem to like being called a "thing" or a "beast" because it glared at her. Or what passed for a glare anyway.

"This is your piece of land, isn't it?" Mai continued, untroubled by the reaction she provoked. "That's why you came to Senlin Village; you're upset that the Fire Nation attacked your land and burned everything down. That's why you took me here."

The panda slowly nodded. It nudged the ashes again.

Mai knelt down next panda. Orders, threats, and pleas didn't work, but maybe comforting the panda would. It was obviously upset about its home. Comforting wasn't her thing, but Mai supposed that since she really wanted to get back to the real world, she could channel her inner Ty Lee. Which seemed to be revealing itself more often than she wanted recently.

"Don't worry," she murmured to the furry ear. "Fire burned it down, but it will grow again." She gestured at the wide, burned expanse. "All of these ashes will provide nutrients for the new trees, the new plants. Animals will come back. It's gone for now, but it won't be gone forever. It will come back."

The panda pawed the land for a moment, then licked her happily. Mai groaned silently at the saliva on her cheek. "Now can you get me home?"

The panda made a gesture like _Climb on!_ and Mai hesitantly sat on the animal's back. Then the panda began to run – and run quickly at that. "Couldn't you have just carried me here as well?" Mai grumbled good-naturedly as the panda began moving so quickly everything turned into a blur.

Then something shifted, and Mai knew that she had come back to the real world. She stumbled a little, and found herself just in front of Senlin Village's main entrance. It was just past sunset.

She turned back to the charred forest, and thought she saw two clever eyes peering at her. "Thank you," she whispered to it. "I'll promise, I'll try to stop things like this from happening again."

And then she strode into the village.

* * *

><p>Prince Zuko had been notified of the possibility of intruders at dawn, when spies had glimpsed the Avatar's bison moving toward Crescent Island. The other Fire Sages began searching the temple, making it look deserted, and so on.<p>

Zuko, being a prince by blood, was naturally left out of these things. Instead, he had been ushered in some secret room to wait out the intruders, grumbling and protesting half-heartedly. He didn't want to miss out on meeting the Avatar, but Shyu had asked him to stay as a personal favor. Zuko had grumbled some more at that, but Shyu's advice was generally good, so he listened, if unwillingly. The older Sage occasionally reminded him of his Uncle Iroh, which both was painful and comforting.

And yet…the Avatar was the bridge between the worlds, the physical world and the Spirit World. He was the one living person with the most connection to the Spirit World, and if anyone could do this, he could. Zuko may have failed three times but surely the Avatar could succeed. And if the Avatar couldn't, then no one would be able to succeed. When the Fire Sages captured the Avatar, he could demand to see him, and the Fire Sages would allow him, and then he could use the Avatar to help him enter the Spirit World.

He closed his eyes and thought of Azula, his adorable sister with the huge golden eyes and the sly smirk. His poor little sister, so long gone. What he wouldn't give to see her one last time…

A shout and a crash faintly echoed through the small hidden room Zuko was in, startling him. Zuko frowned: the sound came from above, but this room was so high that the only thing above could be the sanctuary.

He shoved his way past the useless memorabilia that littered the room to the windows. As he had guessed, several battleships were missing from the harbor and docked at the port of Crescent Island. He could trust the Fire Sages not to harm the Avatar, but members of the Fire Nation military were different. Especially if they were under the command of someone who was even vaguely like Zhao.

No! He wouldn't give up this chance. Scrambling to reach the secret entrance, he blasted a wall of flames at what seemed to be a wall. It creaked and slid away, revealing the staircase that led up to the sanctuary. He rushed up the stairs, panting heavily, each flash of fire and each bang against the stone walls making him both worried and relieved. Worried because he was afraid someone would capture the Avatar before him, relieved because each sound was proof that the fight was still on.

As he reached the top stair, he was greeted with the sight of what was the strangest fight he had ever seen. Chunks of debris and seawater covered the floor, forcing all of the combatants to skirt around them and avoid slipping. A boy was shouting bizarrely as he tried to whack the firebenders with some weapon that Zuko was certain came from the Water Tribes, and a girl who was evading the attacks and

But the one who really startled him was the last one, short, slender girl in Earth Kingdom greens who was bringing crashing waves from the sea – which had to be thousands of feet below – to attack the masked firebenders and – was that Zhao? Zhao's fiery hands were extinguish as a wave flung him against the wall. Zuko had to admit that the Earth Kingdom girl impressed him; anyone who could repeatedly smash Zhao against the wall was immediately in his good books.

But Zhao was giving as good as he got, and the girl had to dodge fireblasts that were pushing her to the ruined wall that led straight down to the sea. She was amazingly good at not falling down, but as she twisted, he saw that she stumbled slightly.

This was the Avatar, Zuko was sure of it. The Avatar was the greatest bender of all, and she was the only one of the three who was bending. And though Zhao was despicable as a person, but his firebending was good enough. She was the Avatar; he couldn't let Zhao kill her.

Zuko leapt forward, blocking Zhao's fire strike. He threw his own fireball at the other man, and grabbed the girl around the waist. She sputtered and tried to attack him, but he jumped off the ledge.

"What are you doing, you idiot?" a familiar voice shouted in his ear. "You'll get both of us killed!"

Zuko ignored the voice and the fists beating on his back in favor of concentrating on not getting both of them killed by going ker_-splat_ on the ocean. He blasted a trail of fire that forced them to stay close to the ledge.

Seventy feet, sixty feet.

"Let me go! Unless you want both of us to die, let me go?"

Fifty feet, forty feet.

"You idiot! Do you have a death wish?"

He saw his chance at the large window. Using his fire to power them toward it, he grabbed the windowsill with his free hand and stopped them from free-falling. Easily (this girl was unbelievably light) he pulled both of them inside, letting her go.

She sputtered some more and then seemed to recollect her senses because the next thing he felt was a slap across the face. "You idiot!"

Zuko rubbed his stinging cheek and looked at the girl, who was busily straightening her clothes. "I just wanted to ask you – "

"What?" The girl looked up at him coldly. Golden eyes met golden eyes.

"No," Zuko gasped, as he stumbled back. It couldn't be, it couldn't, it couldn't. "You're dead. You're _dead_."

The girl's oblique brows drew together in confusion. Then her eyes widened in shock. "Zuzu?"

Zuzu. No one called him "Zuzu" except Azula. "No!" he shouted. "You're not Azula! Shut up! You're not Azula!"

The floor cracked beneath his feet, the gash widening and stretching across the hallway floor. Azula – no, no, it wasn't Azula, it couldn't be – took a step forward uncertainly. "It is you, isn't it, Zuzu?"

The floor was beginning to shake as the temple began to crumble. "No, don't come forward! Just leave!"

"Zuko, I –"

"Leave!" he bellowed. "Get out of here!"

Zuko sunk into a pile as he heard the slowly vanishing sound of Azula, the sister he searched for in vain for seven years, the sister he gave up everything for, walking away.

"Why?" he whispered brokenly. "Why?"


	8. The Waterbending Scroll

**Title: **Frozen Fire: Waterbender

**Author: **Qwerky Qity

**Rating: **T

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

**Summary: **In another world, Azula was a prodigious bender. Just not a prodigious firebender.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 8: The Waterbending Scroll<strong>

"So you have to master all four elements before the end of the summer or the world goes ka-boom?" Sokka phrased the problem succinctly if not sensibly.

"Pretty much," Aang replied worriedly. "But water the next element I need to learn and we're still _weeks _from the North Pole. And there's no way we can find an earthbending and firebending master for me in time."

"Azula can help with the waterbending," Suki suggested, but there was something off in the way she said it. She looked sideways at the silent girl. "Right?"

Azula's eyes flickered up. "Of course."

The atmosphere was strained and dark as Appa slowly navigated his way past the Earth Kingdom border, Suki letting out a sigh of relief when he did. So far, none of them had really talked about what happened at the Fire Temple other than Aang, who, wrapped up in his own worries, was clueless about the storm of thoughts and suspicions that was hovering around the group, mainly centered between the two girls.

Azula was still deciding how to address Suki's inevitable questions. She hadn't meant to give away so much this early in the game, but Suki was much more observant than Aang and far more mistrustful than Sokka. She was less on guard after the prison rig, but there were times when Azula felt that the Kyoshi Warrior still suspected her. Though Azula was sure that if push came to shove, she could beat Suki, she wasn't so sure she could hide it from Aang. As flighty as the airbender was, he would definitely notice that someone in their group was gone and ask more questions than she wanted raised. So there was the probably: she couldn't get rid of the annoying warrior, but neither could she leave things as they were. And Suki was almost definitely going to ask her about the situation very soon.

More importantly was what happened at the temple itself. Azula was sure that the boy who grabbed her was her brother. He was still the same terribly impulsive Zuzu, and though the scar was new, it didn't take much thought as to where he had gotten it from.

But why was he wearing the robes of a Fire Sage? Surely, even a prince far removed from the succession could find a better profession than living in a drafty temple and memorizing useless scrolls about spirituality and things like that. Though, Azula reflected, that was exactly what the airbenders had done for thousands of years. No wonder they were wiped out. Zuko wasn't exactly airbender pacifist though: volatile, hot-tempered, driven to the point of obsession, not the type to choose being a Fire Sage over a general. Zuko always wanted to be a general when they were younger, like their fuddy-duddy uncle. Azula didn't think that anything could have made her brother give up that dream.

Having spent more time in the company of females, Sokka had wisely shut up after the tense exchange of words between the Azula and Suki. Having spent his entire life with a bunch of male monks, Aang hadn't.

"Cool! Azula can totally teach me waterbending? When are we going to start? Should I find a lake for us to practice in?" He peered over Appa's head and pointed at somewhere below. "Let's land there, buddy!" Aang grinned at the group. "We can start right away."

Azula grimaced. There were times when she thought about introducing Aang to Ty Lee properly. Then the rest of the world wouldn't have to deal with their annoying cheeriness and lack of ability to understand subtle messages.

* * *

><p>No one had come for Zuko since he had been thrown into the dungeons, not even a physician to dress the wound on his head (courtesy of Zhao, the snake), but Zuko knew what was going to happen anyway. The whispers of the Avatar's return had turned into full-blown rumors that made the guards look at him curiously and disgustedly.<p>

How could a prince of the Fire Nation betray his family and his homeland by helping the Avatar?

It was quite useless for Zuko to explain. Zhao had spoken to the Firelord about the mess that happened on Crescent Island, and Zuko had been promptly thrown into the dungeons. Grandfather Azulon had never liked explanations much, and had liked him even less. He was a strict advocate against the idea of "heir and a spare", believing that one son was enough for the line to continue. Ozai's banishment was evidence of that, and the only thing that kept Zuko from following in his father's fate (which the other man most assuredly deserved) was the fact that no one would support a Fire Sage who had been a younger son and who had renounced his claim to the throne. But one who had helped the enemy? Azulon would never let someone endanger the Fire Nation like that, any more than he would let Zuko endanger the succession.

Clearly, Azulon's own childhood as the youngest of Sozin's many, _many_ sons and the power struggles that had naturally ensued had made him wary of having too many heirs. Zuko had heard stories about the Fire Nation nearly being torn apart by civil war before the rather suspicious death of his grandfather's third eldest brother.

The sun had long set by the time Zuko was brought to the Capitol. His execution would likely take place soon, maybe even the next day, since Azulon would want to get it over as soon as possible. As a member of the royal family, he would be spared the ignoble death of being beheaded in front of a crowd, even if he was a traitor. Probably, it would be private, with only the Firelord and maybe Uncle Iroh in attendance. Or if he was lucky, the Firelord would grant him enough mercy to allow him a quiet suicide in his cell, to hang himself.

Zuko glanced up at the poles of metal that stretched across the ceiling of the cell he was in. He imagined what it would be like: a bolt of sturdy cloth hanging, choking him, killing him…What would he be dying for? So that Lu Ten could take the throne without any challenges? He snorted. Lu Ten was a good person, very, _very_ deep inside, and he had been a good cousin to Zuko, but only a fool would think that Lu Ten could make a good Firelord.

There was a sound at the door, and Zuko turned to look, not sure what he was expecting. Then, a metal tray holding a bowl of gruel slid in.

Oh. Dinner.

Sighing, Zuko picked it up. The prisoner's last meal, for sure. After all, the son of the disgraced second prince had no friends at court, no one who would help him. The White Lotus probably had someone in the Capitol, but he doubted he was important enough to the saved. After all, the only member he had contact with so far was Shyu, and Shyu was in the same state as him, if not worse. And they probably couldn't get in even if they tried. He cradled the bowl, the metal warm from the heat of its contents, and looked in it. "Am I just going to die?" he asked aloud, voice echoing in the empty cell. "Like this?"

A girl's face bubbled on the surface of the gruel, cold golden eyes surrounded by a web of faint scars.

Azula.

Zuko dropped the bowl on the hard metal floor, spilling his last meal. He took a few strangled breaths.

Azula. No, that wasn't Azula. The girl at the Fire Temple couldn't have been Azula, his Azula, his sweet little sister who wanted to desperately to firebend as well as he could. To firebend at all. That couldn't have been Azula, because Azula couldn't be a waterbender. It was a cruel trick of the light that had made him mistake the girl for his sister.

"You're dead," Zuko said to her. "You're dead."

But the gold eyes only glittered cruelly, taunting him.

* * *

><p>The pirates were absurdly easy to lose in the crowded marketplace. What was more difficult was trying to persuade the rigidly moral members of her group to accept that she had stolen the waterbending scroll. What was even more difficult was mastering the waterbending moves on the scroll.<p>

Aang was laughing as he twirled the water whip around, startling the wildlife and making Momo yelp unhappily. He was now trying to use double water whips, but it seemed that the Avatar, as usual, was more interested in playing than in actually learning something.

Azula frowned. She had mastered double water whips already, but if Aang had bothered to apply himself at all, he probably would have done it before her. The ease with which the airbending boy had taken to waterbending frustrated her. Granted, the Avatar had thousands upon thousands of lives to perfect his bending, and Azula only had this one, but still, she wasn't used to competition in waterbending. Though considering that the South Pole had a grand total of one waterbender, that wasn't exactly surprising.

Before, Azula had always relied upon the firebending forms she had learned from her time back in the Fire Nation to guide her waterbending. It had worked, even if it wasn't traditional waterbending. But mastering the waterbending forms the scroll held was completely different from the waterbending she had taught herself. Not the water part. Water responded to her touch no matter what. The problem, Azula determined, lay in the mindset she used.

Firebending advocated aggression and domination, and from what she remembered from Zuko's lessons, you had to control fire, bend it to your will rather than allowing it to control you. Waterbending, on the other hand, was about moving in harmony with the water, pushing and pulling, swaying back and forth, sometimes letting it move you, sometimes you moving it.

It made no sense.

Someone tapped her shoulder. It was Suki; Sokka had stormed off after a very unpleasant accident with the water whip, saying that he was going to take Appa flying. Appa hadn't like it, and Azula was fairly sure he was doing dangerous tricks somewhere with Sokka barely hanging on. She only hoped that their supplies survived, as they could hardly return to the marketplace. "Aren't you supposed to be teaching Aang?"

"I can hardly teach him if I don't know what to teach," Azula said, keeping her voice civil.

Suki shrugged and sat next on a large rock next to her. "I was just asking. But Aang doesn't seem very interested in actually learning waterbending, does he?"

Azula raised her eyebrows delicately.

"Alright," Suki amended. "He's not interested in learning at all." She glanced at Azula through the corner of her eye.

Her meaning was clear. Azula weighed her options for a moment. She could go straight to telling Suki what she wanted Suki to hear, or she could stall. Ang it would be inconvenient if Suki realized how well she could lie this soon in the game. In the little stream, Aang was currently hopping around with double water whips. So Azula raised both hands, and pulled.

Aang yelped as a water whip smacked into him, disintegrating right before it cut the young Avatar in two. But he didn't seem to notice that he could have died because he only turned, smiled, and skipped over to her, still smiling. "Wasn't that cool? Waterbending's great, isn't it?"

"Next," Azula said, ignoring Aang's enthusiasm, "you will learn the water blade."

Aang peered at the scroll and made a face. "What is that guy _doing_?" he asked incredulously. "I mean, he has his arms like this –" Aang twisted his arms in an absurd fashion most unlike what the example was doing. "– and then like this –" He struck another inaccurate pose. " – and it's actually supposed to cut something as thick as a tree in half?"

Azula rolled her eyes. "Just try it. If you do it right, it will work." After all, she was sitting on her own perfectly cut tree stump.

Aang launched himself into the water with an air blast and began making overly dramatic swings of his arms. Momo clung to his neck, tail swishing and only adding to the pandemonium.

Suki cleared her throat. "What were we talking about again?" she asked meaningfully.

"Let's skip the small talk and get to the point," Azula said. "You want to ask me about how I knew so much at the Fire Temple."

Azula could see that she had surprised the other girl with her directness. "Yeah," Suki admitted. "I said that I didn't think you're a bad person, and I don't. But…"

"Naturally," Azula interjected smoothly. "I understand why you would think that." She made a show of picking at the scroll. "It's not a subject I really want to discuss, but I suppose that you should hear it."

Suki waited.

"I'm not Sokka's sister by blood." Suki would have figured that out, but even admitting small things like this could instill trust. "My…father was a Fire Nation soldier, stationed on Crescent Island, and my mother part of the Water Tribes. She was taken captive in a raid, and I was born in the Fire Nation. I lived my childhood years there, but then something happened." Azula paused for effect. "My mother and I ended up back in the Southern Water Tribe. She was very sickly, and Sokka's family had just lost his little sister, and his father knew my mother before, so…Sokka's just like my brother, anyway. And I'm as close to a sister as he has." Azula pretended to pretend that she wasn't bothered by what she said.

Suki digested what she had said in silence for a second. "I'm sorry," she finally said for lack of things to say. "I didn't mean –"

"It's alright," Azula shrugged. "In a way, I'm glad you asked me. Sokka has it worse than me; he was very close to his sister." Her implication was clear. "He doesn't like to talk about it either."

Suki wouldn't ask Sokka to corroborate her story after this. Suki already began to thaw toward Azula after the rig incident, and her story would cement Suki's trust.

Aang came in right on cue. "Hey I've got it!" he hollered. "Watch!"

Azula and Suki both turned to look at the showy airbender, mainly because they knew that he would not give up until they were doing so.

Aang raised his right arm, and slowly pivoted, switching the positions of his arms. The water blade he had drawn out of the stream uncurled itself, flying into a nearby tree. Ice would have been easier, Azula supposed, but it took time to freeze water, and even mere seconds was precious in battle, which was why the water blade was developed. Aang's blade cut the thick trunk in half. The branches made a loud rustling sound as they fell onto the ground, and several birds chirped their alarm.

The water fell onto the ground next to the tree, and Azula winced. Sloppy. She would have bent the water back to the stream.

"See?" Aang bounded over to the chopped stump. "That was almost perfect." He pointed at the tiny splinter that had remained stubbornly standing. Otherwise, the surface of the stump was completely smooth.

"Almost," Azula said coldly, "isn't good enough."

* * *

><p>"Zuko. Zuko!" Someone was shaking his shoulder.<p>

Zuko opened his eyes blearily. Then he scrambled to get up. "Mom!"

Princess Ursa was standing in front of him. Her face was pale and it looked like she had more than one sleepless night recently. And she wearing the robes – robes, Zuko noticed, that looked a lot like his.

"How did you get in here, Mom? Weren't there guards?"

Ursa only smiled back. "How tall you've grown," she murmured as she brushed a stray lock of hair away from his face.

Indeed. Zuko was already standing half and head taller than his mother. Then a thought struck him. "Mom, do you think Azula could be alive?"

Ursa's smile faltered. "Let's talk about that later, okay? I wanted to see you, Zuko. It's been so long, and I hoped and hoped and hoped to see you again, and now…" She trailed off. "Why don't you sit down?"

Zuko sat obediently. Then he remembered something. "I think I saw Azula at the Fire Temple. She was with the Avatar. But I don't think it was her, because Azula's gone."

Mom and Azula looked so much alike, except for the golden eyes. Azula and he both had their father's eyes, but Azula resembled their mother in everything else. Seeing Mom was like seeing Azula again, which was painful.

Mom held a cup of water to his lips. "Drink this," she murmured.

"I'm not thirsty," Zuko insisted, but Mom shook her head and told him to drink it anyway.

The cup didn't hold water, Zuko realized. It was vaguely sweet, with a hint of something bitter. But Mom was giving it to him, so it had to be okay…

"Mom?" he croaked. "What is this? It isn't water, is it."

Ursa didn't answer his question. "I'm so sorry, Zuko," she said quietly. "I wish we had more time together, but…Never forget who you are, my son. Never forget that I love you."

Three Ursas hovered over him, smiling sadly, as Zuko's eyes closed.

* * *

><p>"Wake up, Mai!"<p>

Mai groaned as she sat up. Naturally, it was Ty Lee. "Ty Lee, what are you doing?"

Ty Lee smiled sunnily. "Waking you up, of course. See, it's lunchtime already." The midday sun was seeping through the appropriately high-quality, heavy curtains in Mai's bedroom.

"I was kidnapped by a spirit panda," Mai pointed out dryly. "I think that I deserve to spend a little more time sleeping."

"There's fruit tarts. And I _know_ fruit tarts are your favorite!"

Mai rolled her eyes, but grudgingly got out of bed. She had not eaten the spicy lamb-beef yesterday – the smell had made her retch – but fruit tarts were sour. Sour fruit tarts sounded good. She could use something sour.

Ty Lee was happily picking out Mai's outfit for today, browsing through the closet. "Hey, Mai, which one are you going to wear today?" The acrobat – who was wearing the abominably pink color she always wore – held up two identical outfits.

"There's no difference, Ty Lee."

"I know, I know. You really need some shopping. I mean, you're the Princess of the Fire Nation, for Agni's sake! Lu Ten has to be giving you an allowance." Ty Lee thought for a moment. "You know, Master Piandao told me about the little town just north of here – Daolin, or Daolu, or something – that has a really cool port-side marketplace. With real pirates! I'm sure there will some nice clothes there. And we can meet the pirates."

Mai rolled her eyes, and chose the outfit Ty Lee was holding in her left hand. Trust her friend to want to actually meet up with pirates. "Whatever."

"So you'll come!" Ty Lee squealed with excitement and dragged Mai over to the dining room, which had been hastily set up at Mai's arrival. It used to be a mess hall, but now the soldiers were eating somewhere else, and the Fire Princess had a nice, private dining area. Ty Lee plopped down in one of the cushy chairs that had been dragged from some villager. The thought made Mai frown, but Ty Lee didn't notice as she pushed the plate of fruit tarts at Mai. "Eat up."

Mai took the one on top and bit into it. She forced herself to swallow for the sake of the enormous grey eyes following her every movement. "It's very sweet," she allowed. Too sweet. It tasted like enormous sugar lumps mixed with a generous helping of sugar. Come to think of it, it tasted like Ty Lee's personality in fruit tart form... "You made these?"

Ty Lee nodded furiously. "I know you love my fruit tarts! Remember last time I made fruit tarts? I thought they were too sweet, but you said that it wasn't, so I added more sugar this time!" That explained the feeling of eating sugar lumps with a generous helping of sugar. Last time it was just eating sugar lumps with a small side of sugar. "Do you like them?"

"Yeah." Mai made a show of eating the entire thing. "I like them."

"Then eat up! Then we can go to Daoluo and meet pirates."

Mai nodded absently. Agni, were there really a dozen more tarts?

* * *

><p>Piandao watched Lady Mai be dragged around the rather questionable marketplace by her excitable pink friend. A pirate-infested port was hardly the place for two young women, but he felt that they could take care of themselves if anyone bothered them. And if they couldn't, he was only a few steps behind.<p>

He stopped to send a glare at a short, bald pirate who was eyeing the acrobat. The pirate sneered back. Piandao rested his hand on the hilt of his very wicked looking sword. The pirate looked away.

"Wow! Mai, look at that monkey!"

"It's hideous," Lady Mai replied. "Aren't we supposed to be looking for clothes?"

"But you said –"

"Ignore what I said." Lady Mai turned around and gave him a look that said _why in the name of Agni did you tell Ty Lee about this place?_ "Shouldn't we be –"

"Oooh, is that an antique tsungi horn?"

Lady Mai was reluctantly pulled into another direction to evaluate the merits of a rusted-over "antique" tsungi horn. "Do I have to?"

Piandao stifled a laugh and followed the two girls in the seedy tavern that held the horn and the one-eyed man who was playing it. Maybe telling the impulsive, happy-go-lucky Ty Lee about an exotic, one-of-a-kind pirate market wasn't the best idea, but the antics of the two girls were amusing. And it gave him the chance to meet up with one of his contacts without setting off the suspicions of Lady Mai. The young princess was quite intelligent and very observant after all, and Piandao didn't believe that she needed to know everything quite yet. Maybe one day in the near future.

He made a beeline for the thin, reedy man sitting in front of a Pai-Sho board. "May I have this game?"

The man smiled at Piandao. "The guest has the first move."

Piandao placed a white lotus tile in the center of the board.

* * *

><p>Mai fingered her knives with her free hand; her un-free hand was currently being tightly held by Ty Lee, who seemed to believe that if she let go, Mai would run all the back to the comfortable quarters they had in Senlin Village.<p>

Ty Lee had a point. Because seriously, who in their right mind wants to spend time mooning over an old tsungi horn (and the lice-infested man who played it) in a tavern filled to the brim with the scum of the earth?

"You must be _sooo_ talented!"

Ty Lee would, naturally. Mai glanced around for Master Piandao, but the swordsman was nowhere to be seen. Hmm, that was strange. Master Piandao had been within five steps of them all the way here. And now he was out of sight. Leaving her alone with Ty Lee and her friend's misplaced enthusiasm.

Mai looked around. The bar was crowded with more lice-infested men carrying cups of cheap alcohol. They were singing rude songs, telling over-exaggerated stories, and essentially doing all the other things she would expect a bunch of uncivilized Earth Kingdomers to do. One pirate was being particularly loud.

" – and that stupid, scarred little Fire Nation brat – "

Mai's head whipped around to look at the speaker. He had greasy hair and a gold earring, and was talking about a recent theft (like he wasn't a thief) over a spilling cup of beer.

After filtering out all the useless embellishments and comments to boost his own ego, she had what she wanted to know. Four children had visited his ship, tried to scam them, and stole a waterbending scroll that was worth five hundred gold. Then, when they tried to get it back, they lost horribly. Which meant that now he was drinking his sorrows out in a dirty little tavern with his friends.

Four children and a waterbending scroll. One of them had to be Azula.

Mai jerked Ty Lee's hand, getting her friend's attention. "We're leaving."

"But I don't want do!" Ty Lee pouted. "Please? Pretty please? You can find me when you're done doing…whatever you're going to do. Mung's going to teach me to play the tsungi horn."

"Mung" grinned, and Mai wrinkled her nose. He had three very yellow teeth. "Doan worry, me girl. Yo friend will be safe as kin be."

It wasn't worth the time to persuade Ty Lee away from her newest fancy. "Fine, you can stay here." Mai looked around again. "I'm leaving as soon as I find Master Piandao."

"No need." Piandao was right next to her. "May I ask where are we going, my lady?"

Right next to her. When he was out of sight merely moments ago. Mai's eyes narrowed, but this wasn't the time to interrogate him. "Where's the nearest body of water?"

* * *

><p>Zuko awoke to the feeling of the afternoon sun on his face – which was strange, because firebenders rose with the sun. Not hours after.<p>

He groaned as he sat up. What had happened…he touched the wound on his head. It had scabbed over. Then he remembered.

Mom. The drink. His prison cell.

His prison cell! He scrambled up. This wasn't his prison cell! He was in the woods. But since he was unconscious for at least half a day, that meant that someone had to have brought him here. Which meant that there had to be someone who was nearby, who could tell him exactly what happened. And where Mom was.

With that thought in mind, Zuko stumbled his way across the woods, clinging to the tree trunks for support. "Hello? Anyone there?"

"Anyone?"

Zuko looked around.

And then he gasped. Two bodies lay in front of him, half-concealed by leaves and dirt, bleeding profusely. They wore Imperial armor.

He knelt next to the nearest one and shook it. "Can you hear me? Wake up!" No response. The body was cold, and the face was white from lack of blood. This person was dead.

"Highness…" A weak voice sounded.

Zuko hurried to the side of the other body. It was a young woman, whose face and body were streaked with dust and blood. "What happened?"

"Old…woman." The woman gave a gasp. "Water –" he choked off.

"Water? You want water?"

She shook his head faintly. "Bender."

"Waterbender? She attacked you?" Zuko looked around quickly, raising his hands in a defensive position should the waterbender still be lurking around.

"Gone…now."

Gone. But there was nothing Zuko could do for the dying young woman in front of him. Then he remembered why he was looking for them. "Where's Mom?" he asked urgently. "What happened?"

The answer came slowly. "Princess wanted…save you. Drank sleeping…potion. We…brought you here…in the night."

But that didn't make sense. If Mom wanted to save him, then why did she need to drug him? It wasn't as if Zuko would object to living, not when he was to be executed for something so unfair. Maybe so that no one would try to search for him? Suddenly a memory stood out in Zuko's mind: Mom in Fire Sage robes. "Oh Agni," he breathed. "She replaced me, didn't she? She got you to get me out, and she's going to die in my place!" And since his execution would be private and his body would be burned, no one would think that he was still alive. "Did she? Tell me!"

The young woman nodded feebly.

Zuko forced himself to stand up.

"Where…you…going?" she gasped out.

"I need to save Mom! I can't let her die!" he shouted as he staggered off. The drugs hadn't worn off entirely yet, and his head wound wasn't making anything better.

"No! Come…back! You need to –" The feeble pleas of the young woman were quickly cut off, but Zuko pushed the reason out of his head. A patrol would honor them properly. It wasn't as if he could have helped her anyway.

He had to get back to the Capitol. He had to save Mom.

* * *

><p>Everything was going along perfectly – or at least as well as it could – and Azula was just about to call it a day (the sun had set, and even if she wasn't a firebender, she was still oddly in tune witht eh cycles of the sun) when three throwing knives sunk themselves into the tree behind Azula, missing her neck by a hair's width. She had just turned around sharply to yell at Momo for throwing rocks at her head.<p>

At least that stupid creature was good for something.

Ignoring the now chattering monkey, Azula instinctively slid into a fighting stance. It would be good to put some of what she had learned to practical usage. In that respect, Mai's party had arrived right on time.

Suki, too, had her fans out, but the last member…

Aang didn't seem to realize that they had just been ambushed, because he was still skiing on the water wave he had learned to make. "Hey, look at me!" He waved as he passed them, _still_ not seeing that someone was aiming several very sharp knives at them.

What a good way to attract your enemy's attention. But it would be very bad if the Avatar was to die so soon. A sharp clang that sounded when Azula's water whip intercepted another three of Mai's knives startled the useless-in-battle Avatar into losing his concentration. He fell into the river. Good for him. The best thing to do was to take himself out of the fight and let some more experienced people take care of it.

Suki were fighting with Piandao somewhere to the left, which meant Azula would have to take on her old friend.

Double water whips, Azula decided. And maybe a freeze or two. Mai always hated getting wet and cold.

* * *

><p>Mai gritted her teeth. Every time she looked at Azula, who was currently using a technique that was decidedly "real" waterbending – the waterbending scroll's work, probably – the image of the young, firebending Azula from the Spirit World would pop up. It was distracting to say the least. At least Azula didn't seem too interested in taking the offensive; she would have some problems defending herself otherwise.<p>

They were at a standstill, at least for the moment.

Azula seemed to realize this, because she dropped the string of water and took few steps forward, but Mai wasn't fooled. Even without a weapon in sight, Azula was very dangerous. "Good to see you again, Mai." As if they were friends and not enemies who were fighting on opposite sides. "You know, you arrived perfectly on schedule."

Was she trying to throw Mai off? Well, two could play at this game. Mai dropped her hands and walked past the line of bushes that separated them slowly. "I never thought that you would be one of those fortunetellers, Azula. But a liar is only a step away, isn't it?"

Azula smirked and, quick as lightning, launched another attack, the water whip uncurling itself with astonishing speed. Only Mai's own agility allowed her to dodge it, and return several knives. Azula raised a wall of water to defend herself, but Mai heard a hiss; one of them had made it past the wall and grazed Azula's arm.

Mai allowed herself a small jolt of pleasure at her success. "Are you having a hard time, _old friend_?"

"Not especially." Azula's eyes caught on Mai's headpiece. Mai could see the flash of surprise, even at a distance, before the golden orbs narrowed cruelly. "Tell me, Mai, exactly what did you do that scared poor Zuzu so much that he would rather be a Fire Sage than marry you?"

Emotions, thoughts, and mainly shock hit Mai harder than any water whip Azula could summon. How did she know that Zuko was a Fire Sage? How dare she bring that up? Did Azula know that it was her fault, not Mai's, that Zuko was Fire Sage? Mai was so caught up in her own thoughts she was barely aware of the water whips catching her in the stomach, throwing her back. Quickly, they tied themselves around her, freezing her in place. The only thing that was free was her face.

Ugh. It seemed that the years apart had made her forget the most important thing when dealing with Azula. Rule number one: never let Azula distract you.

* * *

><p>When he returned, Sokka expected to see Aang goofing off, Azula yelling at Aang for goofing off, Azula practicing waterbending, Aang flattering Azula on her waterbending, or some mix of the four. He was not expecting that the crazy knife girl would be there with the sword guy.<p>

Or that they would make very pretty statues. Especially the sword. But by the state of Azula's emotions (decidedly angry, if the bleeding cut on her arm and her pride in her fighting skills was anything to go by), it would be better not to ask exactly what happened. "Um, should we go?"

Azula stomped forward, dragging with her uninjured arm a wet, protesting Aang. Suki followed them bemusedly.

Aang scrambled to get as far from Azula as possible – surprise, surprise – and settled on the edge of Appa's head. "Yip, yip."

Sokka pretended not to notice how Azula unfroze the crazy knife girl and the swordsman as soon as they were in the air. Clearly, something was going on that he didn't fully understand, but if she didn't want their enemies to have terrible frostbite the next time they met up, he wasn't going to cross her.

Not right now, at least. When they got to have a private talk later, he would be asking her about that.

* * *

><p>"Why are you guys so wet?" Ty Lee was still full of bubbly energy. "You really should have stayed with me. Mung taught me how to play the tsungi horn really well while you were gone. I'm sure you could have learned it too."<p>

"Playing the same instrument as a dirty, lice-infested man is not sanitary," Mai observed.

Ty Lee shrugged her statement off. "It was fun. You don't look like you had fun."

"We didn't." Mai didn't mean to snap at her friend, but after a day of being dragged around by Ty Lee, leered at by pirates, reminded of Zuko, and frozen in ice, she was hardly in a good mood. "Can't you just shut up?"

Ty Lee's lower lip wobbled, and Mai felt a vague sense of guilt. Mai sighed. "I'm sorry, Ty Lee. I'm just in a bad – " She gave a strangled gasp and clutched her stomach, suddenly felt a terrible stabbing pain where Azula's water whip had caught her. What did Azula do to her?

Piandao caught her wrist before she could tumble down. "Should I call for a healer, my lady?" he asked. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine." Mai stood up, embarrassed, both at her fall and that the swordsman thought that she was so easily hurt. This day was just getting worse by the minute.

"Are you sure?" Ty Lee had forgotten Mai's sharpness as she looked at her friend, grey eyes wide with worry. "You look a little pale."

"I said that I'm _fine_." Mai turned sharply to walk to her bedroom, where she could have some peace and quiet, a change of dry, warm clothes, and privacy to deal with the nagging suspicion stuck at the back of her mind.

* * *

><p>Zuko dropped to his knees, landing on the hard earth. "C'mon," he muttered. "You have to keep going. You have to save Mom."<p>

But his legs stubbornly refused to get up again. Zuko closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Get up, Zuko. _Get up_."

He gave a shout of frustration when his legs gave out underneath him just as he stood up. This wasn't going to work. He had barely covered any distance so far, bumping into trees he didn't think were there, or tripping over rocks and stones. And his stomach was growling hungrily.

But he couldn't give up. Determinedly, Zuko grabbed the nearest tree root and pulled himself ahead. He would get to the Capitol and save Mom if it was the last thing he did.

It was nightfall by the time Zuko had crawled past the end of the woods. His face was covered with scratches and dirt, and he was seeing triple all over the place. Maybe a drink of water from the stream would help; he must be dehydrated. After all, he had barely drank anything other than that sleeping potion for the last day or so.

Zuko was breathing heavily when he made to the edge of the small stream. He plunged his head in and drank deeply, the water reinvigorating him. Good, he could move on. Zuko leaned against the boulder, resting for a moment, and tried again to stand up. Things would be so much quicker if he could run.

He got up on trembling legs, and felt a brief moment of victory before he collapsed, falling into the stream and smacking his injured head against the boulder. Red covered his vision as his head wound re-opened. He tried to swim like he had been taught, but the only thing that happened was a pathetic flailing of his arms. Zuko knew that he was too weak to actually get above the surface of the water, after being injured and not eating and running for a day.

This was it, he thought despairingly. This was it. He wouldn't be able to save Mom, to save anyone. He was going to die.

Suddenly, just as Zuko accepted his fate, the water around him rose up all at once, and Zuko found himself sputtering as liquid forced itself out of his lungs. The blood clouding his vision was gone. A pair of arms grabbed him before he could topple over again and guided him somewhere, sitting him down.

"Mom." he whispered, hoping that whoever it was could help him. "Save Mom."


	9. Jet

**Title: **Frozen Fire: Waterbender

**Author: **Qwerky Qity

**Rating: **T

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

**Summary: **In another world, Azula was a prodigious bender. Just not a prodigious firebender.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 9: Jet<strong>

Jet hadn't let go of Suki yet. Sokka scowled. Trust an arrogant, depraved, uncivilized, grass-chewing tree-rat to take advantage of an innocent little girl like Suki. His scowl deepened. Then he noticed Azula looking at him amusedly and hastily schooled his face into a pained smile. Sokka sent a quick prayer to the spirits of the moon and ocean that she didn't notice, and prepared to bolt. After all, Azula hardly needed more ammunition.

Too late. His sister's sharply manicured nails dug into his shoulder, her firm grip keeping him from running away as she leaned forward to whisper in his ear. "I bet it wouldn't be like this if you actually did something instead of waiting around for her to make the first move."

Sokka's cheeks turned red. "Shut up!" If Suki heard this, he would be embarrassed out of is mind.

Azula tapped her chin in false thoughtfulness, enjoying her brother's discomfort. "You know what? Give me a couple days, dear brother, and I promise, Suki will give you a much-needed kiss." She sighed mockingly, gold eyes glittering. "Young love. How adorable."

"You're one to talk," Sokka hissed, thinking wildly of anything to distract Azula from tormenting him. Then an idea hit him. "Haven't you seen the way Aang looks at you?"

"So?" Thank Tui and La that she took the bait.

"He obviously has a crush on you!"

His sister barely seemed perturbed. "He does, doesn't he? Speaking of Aang, I have something for you." She grabbed his hand and stuffed several small round things in it. The jelly candy that the Fire Nation troops had. "Jellybeans?" He sniffed one. It smelled pretty good.

Azula smirked. "Aang decided to give me something substantial than looks. Isn't it a pity, even the little Avatar is braver than you…Maybe you should give them to Suki, and she'll decide that a few trophies of war are more impressive than this treehouse hideout." She sent him one last amused look and strode off.

Sokka breathed a sigh of relief and looked up. Seeing Jet flirt with Suki, he promptly began scowling again.

Stupid Jet. Sokka popped a jellybean into his mouth, and immediately spat it out. What kind of people made hot chili flavored jellybeans?

* * *

><p>An ocean away, a thin, dark-skinned girl was wearing the same frown as Sokka as she examined her newest patient. The boy laying in front of her had not only been injured horribly—she guessed a concussion, and the scalp wound from the rock had been bleeding profusely when she saw him drowning in the river—but also drugged and starved. If she hadn't seen and followed the line of the blood from the forest where Aunt Hama had sent her to conceal the bodies of the two Fire Nation soldiers, he would have probably already drowned in that river. The poor thing was obviously too weak to keep afloat, if he even knew how.<p>

A low groan sounded, and when Katara looked down, she saw that the boy's lips were forming the word "Mom."

She sighed. She didn't know where the boy's mother was, but she felt her heart go out to him just the same. It was pretty obvious what had happened to him and his mother. His injuries, long history of starvation (Katara could count each one of his ribs!), and the old burn scar on his face showed that he had been ill-treated for a long time. He and his mother was probably one of the many victims of this cruel war.

She could guess where they came from. The boy looked Fire Nation with his pale skin and jet-black hair, but it was unlikely that he was from the mainland Fire Nation. But Katara had seen many children who looked like him—bitter-hearted, angry children with amber or gold eyes and Earth Kingdom accents, young Earth Kingdom girls forced to parade around in thin robes, worn women with empty green eyes shuffling aimlessly around.

The soldiers Aunt Hama had killed—good riddance, Katara thought with a stab of viciousness—had likely wanted to sell them into the illegal slave trade that was going on. A boy like this, even a scarred one, could fetch a good price in the Fire Nation conscripts or as a servant to the rich, who preferred children with Fire Nation looks instead of the "barbaric" features of the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes. From what the boy mumbled when she had waterbended out of the stream, Katara understood that he was trying to reach him his mother, though she probably had already been sold somewhere else.

"Mom," he moaned again. His face was screwed up in pain. The boy's eyelids flickered open for a moment. His eyes were covered with a feverish sheen.

Katara reached out a water-covered hand and pressed it to his forehead. She wasn't good enough to cure mental illness yet, but she could try and soothe the poor boy. She tried bending the water through his _chi_ the way Aunt Hama had done for her when she had found the young Katara all those years ago, when she had been the in the same situation as the boy.

The young waterbender flinched involuntarily at the memory. After that disastrous last raid, the Fire Nation soldier who killed her mother had grabbed her and taken her to the boats. There, she had been chained with many other children of varying ages. Only two of them were from her Tribe, but she wasn't able to talk to them because they were separated during the chaining process.

Each child had their wrists and ankles linked by thick metal shackles to two other children. Their wrists were let out two times a day so that they could hastily spoon a bit of stale gruel into their mouths, since the Fire Nation soldiers didn't want them to starve to death before they got to the market. At the time, Katara hadn't known what the market was. All she knew was that she couldn't wait for the chance to get off of the dark, loud, stinking quarters below-deck.

At first, she had cried herself to sleep every night, but as time went on, she realized that her tears wouldn't do her any good. So she concentrated on trying to waterbend, or at least feel the waves of the ocean around her. The push and pull of the waves had made her feel better, and she almost forgot the painful circles of metal digging into her wrists and hands and the horror of the quarters she and the other Tribespeople were forced into when the door to the deck had opened and they were all shooed out.

Seeing the sunlight again for the first time in what seemed to be _years _was painful, but Katara had gratefully breathed in the fresh air. Then, for whatever reason, she and the other children chained with her were dragged against a wall and ordered to turn around. She had wondered what they were going to do, and was shocked when a jet of water hit her in the back.

Twenty or so shrieking and flailing children made it very chaotic, but by the end of the session, she and the others were dripping wet, though cleaner than they had been for a long time. Then, they were taken up to a platform, where the masked soldiers stood guard. Their masks had looked very frightening, so when the children were ordered to stay silent and not move, they all listened. A crowd had gathered beneath the platform and was buzzing with noise, and a man, not a soldier, but a man in what appeared to be regular Fire Nation clothes was shouting.

_"Silence!" The crowd didn't listen. Finally, the stout man who seemed to be in charge sent a huge jet of fire into the air, and managed to gain the crowd's attention. "Now, for the rules of this auction. There are twenty-eight fine specimens from the South. The bidding starts at thirty gold pieces, each." Someone in the crowd shouted about ridiculous prices and how the auctioneer was trying to cheat them, but the man didn't listen. "The highest bidder wins."_

_The boy next to her nudged her fearfully. "Dey're selling us," he muttered, his panic coming through his thick accent. "Dey're selling us."_

It was then that Katara realized with a sinking feeling in his stomach what was going to happen to her. The raiders had brought them here to be sold as slaves. She had panicked on the sudden realization and tried to runaway—tried to do _any_thing—but her shackles had only made her trip in place. Tears welled up in Katara's eyes, but she was determined not to cry. Not in front of these—these _monsters_.

Eventually, Katara had been sold to a tradesman who had dumped her in the back of a donkey-ox cart, warned her not to try anything, and drove off. She had cried herself to sleep that night, wondering what would happen now. The tradesman had stopped in an inn, and Katara had tried to sneak off. She had been caught, and punished. _I didn't buy you so that you could try to slip off in the middle of the night, you little savage! _She still had the scars from the whipping she had endured as a result of that.

For almost half a year, she had been forced to stay with the tradesman, enduring hunger, insults, and frequent beatings. Then, the tradesman had lugged his cart to an inn owned by an old woman That night, when she was crying in the corner of the barn after being beaten yet again, she felt a hand lightly touch her on the shoulder. Frightened—for by then Katara had associated touch with pain—she had jumped back, only to see the kindly visage of the innkeeper, who was holding a tray of—was that sea prunes? The innkeeper had explained that she had seen that Katara hadn't eaten anything, and would she like some seaprunes? They were made in the Southern style.

Katara had smiled, her first real smile for months.

Two days later, when they departed the town, the tradesman had decided that cutting through the woods would be quicker than going on the main road, after a recommendation from the innkeeper. Then, as they crossed under the full moon, Katara had heard a mangled shriek from the front seat. Blearily waking up, she had only seen a puddle of red on the ground before the kindly old woman who gave her the sea prunes appeared. She had held a finger to her lips, and led Katara back to the inn.

Katara would eventually hear that a fur merchant had died in the woods, the victim of a boar-bear. But she and her newly discovered Aunt Hama—Aunt Hama had insisted that Katara call her this, saying that she and Kanna had been just like sisters—were above suspicion. In one night, Katara had been freed from the restraints of slavery and met a person who could be like family, and, she was thrilled to learn, teach her waterbending.

The boy moaned again, and Katara sighed. Aunt Hama probably could heal the boy better than she, but she wasn't entirely sure Aunt Hama, whose hatred of the Fire Nation ran so deep, _would_ heal him instead of kill him. And even if this boy was part Fire Nation, he didn't deserve to die. He was lucky to be alive after the ordeal he had gone through. Surely that meant that the spirits wanted him to live.

* * *

><p>After leaving Sokka standing there, upset that Suki was so taken with the peasant boy, Azula had decided to explore a little on her own. Sokka was occupied, Suki was occupied, Aang was occupied, and even the ragged little group who had attacked the soldiers was delegated tasks by their leader. Which meant that no one was there to follow her and ask probing questions.<p>

As she walked to the middle of a bridge slowly, Azula ran her hands over the rope railing that was at the edge of the small fort she was standing on. Sturdy, good ropework. The wooden planks beneath her were old, but they didn't unbalance, even with the wind. Beneath were several huts and tents, so there was only one position to fall from where there would be nothing to catch your fall.. It had taken time and skill to set up a hideout like this, time and skill, she suspected that the so-called Freedom Fighters didn't have. For a brief moment, she wondered who had made this hideout, but it was irrelevant. Whoever did make it obviously died or abandoned it.

Still, an entire community building this at what was a fatal height was strange, at the least.

"Hey."

The voice came from her right, it was low, but unfamiliar, and had the faint accent of the Earth Kingdom. The peasant boy with hooked swords…Jet? Yes, that was his name.

"Didn't you take Suki on a tour?" This peasant felt…dangerous. Not in the sense that he could actually hurt her, of course. He was like blasting jelly: harmless on his own, but if you put in contact with something that could set him off, he could rain down a lot of destruction. If she could channel the destructive force properly, he could be used. If she couldn't, she could always end him before he did something radical.

Maybe she could just leave Suki with him, Azula mused. After a nice good-bye kiss for Sokka of course. Had to deliver on promises, after all.

The peasant boy smirked flirtatiously and scooted over so that their arms lightly grazed each other. Azula pointedly took a step to the left. He twitched noticeably at this. "Suki's cool," he said, trying to keep his voice level. "But I thought that you would appreciate some company." The peasant was trying to look deep into her eyes when he said this, an attempt made more difficult by the fact that Azula was deliberately not looking at him.

The peasant tried again in what he seemed to believe was an irresistible voice. "You know, I think that we would make a great team." He inched closer, forcing Azula to move another step to the left. "You and I, out here fighting the Fire Nation. Together."

Together? Azula suppressed an urge to kick him off the rope bridge. Like she would ever debase herself by doing anything "together" with him. The peasant-turned-terrorist was good enough with his hook swords, but nothing extraordinary. And if he thought that unwashed hair and a chewed piece of grass made him attractive, he had a lot to learn about women. Besides, even if he wasn't completely below her, the fact that he was an anti-Fire Nation fanatic sealed the deal. But the peasant was nothing if not determined, and short of pushing him over the rope bridge, Azula didn't think that he would give up on following her around. And purposefully pushing your host off a rope bridge in his own hideout was considered very impolite, even if the host was an unfaithful, revolting, strutting peasant with thoughts above his station.

"What do you say?" The peasant leaned in. Azula wrinkled her nose delicately. "We can do great things. _Very_ great things."

That did it. The peasant was going to suffer a very nasty fall in the not so far future. Maybe…

Azula turned her head to look at the peasant, who seemed to take this as encouragement because he grinned and leaned in even closer. Suppressing her disgust, Azula took two steps away and a step back—the peasant following her steps like an obedient sheep-puppy—climbing onto the roped railing on the side opposite of the one she had been on. Twisting her legs to prevent herself from falling, she thanked Ty Lee silently for the acrobatic lessons from years earlier. "Jet," she said sweetly. "Could you do me a favor?"

"Sure thing." He swaggered toward her eagerly.

Azula gave him a slightly vicious smile that made him hesitate a little. "Come catch me." She leaned backward—and like she expected, the bridge flipped. Instantly unwrapping her legs from the ropes, Azula grabbed the nearest rope line that would lead her to the safety of a tent. She crouched on the edge to watch the irritating peasant boy have a well-deserved fall.

The peasant's shout of surprise when he found himself tumbling through thin air was very satisfying to hear.

* * *

><p>Zuko was falling through thin air, surrounded by a black, stifling shroud.<p>

He had stopped trying to fight against it some time ago, when he realized that all he was doing was expending more energy and making himself dizzy. Perhaps this was death, but he had expected the afterlife to be more solid. Because this was definitely not the Spirit World—at least, it wasn't how he remembered it. Maybe the spirits were punishing him for not being able to save Mom.

Zuko's heart ached at that thought. He hoped he would be able to be with her soon.

Someone poked his side. Something sharp.

Zuko's eyes opened slowly and he was surprised, though pleased, to find that he was standing on actual ground again on some sort of beach. He scrambled into a fighting position, but the only thing in front of him was a….bird? Zuko blinked. It was a huge, ugly, gangly bird with a long thin beak and intelligent-seeming eyes. And legs that didn't seem strong enough to support its weight; it sort of resembled Zuko when he had been in the awkward stage of growing up.

"Ouch!" The bird had pecked his nose peevishly and was glaring at him. "What was that for?"

The bird pecked him again, harsher than the first time, on his chin.

"Stop doing that, you stupid bird!" Zuko shouted frustrated. He tried to defend his face with his arms, but the stupid bird simply pecked them instead. "Ow!" It had bitten his hand and was refusing to let go.

Something about that brought up a memory: feeding the turtleducks with Mom, all those years ago. The mother turtleduck had bitten his hand when he had thrown a piece of bread at the small turtleduckling, and Mom had to coax it off of him. Maybe if he apologized to the bird?

The bird bit down harder.

"I'm sorry!" Zuko guessed. The bird stopped biting his hand, which Zuko took as a good sign. "I didn't mean to offend you!"

The bird stepped back and gave a pleased nod. Then it spread its wings and gestured for Zuko to climb onto its back. Unsurely, he did.

It was a very bruised Jet who gave the speech that evening. Azula had to admit that it was a good speech, well-written and charismatic. Jet wasn't the oldest of the rebel children living in the hideout, but all the other children looked to him for leadership. Maybe she had been a little hasty in throwing him over the bridge…or maybe not. He did deserve a couple good falls.

Fortunately, no one had suspected her of purposefully launching him over the bridge. After all, the entire thing was twisted up, and only coincidence that he fell in the one place where there was nothing beneath to soften his fall. As for the peasant boy himself, Azula _knew _his kind. He wouldn't admit that he'd been beaten by a girl. Unfortunately, Aang had caught him before he could hit the ground.

She moved closer to hear what Suki and Aang were saying to Jet. Sokka, naturally, was scowling behind them.

"That was a great speech, Jet," Suki gushed.

The peasant smirked cockily. "Thanks. By the way, that was some nice fighting I saw out there—you and Aang, I mean," he added when he saw Azula walking toward them. He sent her a dirty look. Azula gave a content smirk.

But Suki blushed. "Aang's better than me, I'm sure. Aang's the Avatar, you know."

"Avatar? _Very_ nice."

"Thanks, Jet." Aang, the simpleton, didn't realize the peasant's true meaning, but Azula scowled.

"You know," the peasant said conversationally, "I'm sure you and Aang could help a lot in our struggle. Together, we can do anything."

Azula rolled her eyes, but Suki only blushed again. Seriously, how she had ever thought this girl could be a threat to her secret was beyond Azula.

Something about the peasant saying to Suki that they could fight "together" seemed to register with Sokka, because he suddenly spoke. "We're not staying, guys. We need to get going, remember? C'mon. We're leaving _tonight_." He turned to storm off. "Guys?"

Suki hesitated. "Sokka, I feel that we should help Jet."

Sokka groaned. "Suki, we really need to leave. Like, right now!"

"Sokka, you have to be kidding!" The peasant's eyes widened, as if he was really bothered. "I have an important mission for you."

Sokka looked curiously at the peasant. "What mission?"

Azula's eyebrows raised again. Maybe she really had underestimated the peasant.

* * *

><p>"I am so sick of dressing as a peasant," Mai said to Ty Lee and Piandao. If the troops stationed here were at all competent, she could have simply sent them to fetch the Avatar, but everyone knew that the soldiers sent to Gaipan were the ones who had couldn't make it anywhere else. After all, it took real stupidity to be routinely beaten by a bunch of unorganized Earth Kingdom rebels.<p>

Ever since Gaipan had been taken almost a decade ago, the several dozen rebels who lived in the woods had disrupted the trade routes and generally made a nuisance of themselves, nothing that truly affected the flow of the war, but had significant impacts on the nearby cillage. She frowned at the thought. Three of the latest shipments of grain hadn't gone through, and the villagers were clearly starving. The higher-ups didn't care: this was the Gaipan division, and the villagers were only Earth Kingdom anyway. The troops didn't care: they had enough to eat, so what did it matter if other didn't. The rebels were only taking food out of their own people's mouths by doing what they did, but they didn't seem to care much either about the villagers.

"Cheer up," Ty Lee chirped. "Why are we in Gaipan, anyway?"

"Because we're capturing the Avatar." The messenger hawk she had received yesterday had said that Avatar's bison had been spotted in the nearby forest. Apparently, a group of soldiers were transporting blasting jelly and had noticed the creature before they were chased out.

Forest. Ugh. Couldn't the Avatar care a little about material comforts? It would have been so much more convenient if he decided to go to the town, or even the outskirts, where the terrain was flat and well-suited for sky bison. The last time Mai had heard the Avatar being in even a place she would remotely like to visit was Kyoshi Island. It had been a neutral fishing island until Ozai had gotten to it. Then…well, best not to think of the unfortunate fate of the island. She heard that Ozai had been recalled though; good riddance. Maybe the Firelord would finally punish him properly.

This forest wasn't as big as the one at Senlin was—had been, Mai corrected—but it was big enough to present some trouble if the Avatar wanted to evade them. After all, in a place like this, you had to watch not only what was behind you, but also what was above you.

"We should split up," observed Master Piandao. "We cannot hope to cover this entire forest together."

"If we split up, we will be easy prey, not only for the Avatar, but for the rebels in the forest," Mai countered. She made a tiny note in her mind on Piandao's comment. Surely he would have already seen that problem.

"I can see everything form here!" Ty Lee had jumped on one of the scattered trees, and was already half-way up, nestled in its branches like a monkey-squirrel. "Wow, this is really fun. I can see why the Avatar would want to come in here."

"He came here because he's an idiot." The forest was damp, dark, and dirty. Three of her least favorite d-words. Some of her reluctance must have showed through her blank façade, because Ty Lee rolled her eyes.

"C'mon, Mai! Think of it as a forest adventure. Who knows what in that forest—maybe there's a cute guy who's waiting for us."

"I doubt it," Mai said flatly. "More likely we'll see those filthy Earth Kingdom rebels who live here. And slow down." Ty Lee was already twenty feet ahead. "You'll get lost in the forest if you keep going at that pace."

Her friend only giggled. "Walk faster then!"

* * *

><p>The steady beating of the bird's wings was lulling Zuko to sleep when he felt a wave of…something pass through him. It was foreign and unexpected, but at the same time warm and calming. The feeling grew stronger and stronger until Zuko simply couldn't ignore it.<p>

He was in the center of a volcano, and the bird was nowhere to be seen. But there was light—sunlight—shining on him from all sides, brightening the enormous crater. Beneath him, Zuko could feel the shifting of the magma hot under his naked feet, but he wasn't burnt from it.

There was no way this was the Spirit World, but what else could it be? He was dead, after all.

_Not quite yet_.

Zuko craned his neck, but saw nothing except for the blinding light. "Are you a spirit?"

_Am I? _the Voice mused. _What do you think I am?_

And then the warm feeling passed through Zuko again, a thousand times more potent than it had. It filled every fiber of his being, tingling along his nerves, stopping his breath. He dropped to his knees, partly from the overwhelming sensation, partly from the realization of who was speaking to him. "Lord Agni."

_That what I am known as amongst my children_, the Voice conceded. _But that is not all that I am. I am the sun and the fire, the heat and the light. I am the destruction of great wildfire and the warmth of the gentle hearth and the fragility of the candle flame._

Zuko bowed his head humbly. "You honour me with your teachings, great father."

_Honour is a luxury few can afford, and living men too often listen and don't remember. But I did not bring you here to tell you who I_ _am. Who are _you_, Zuko of the Fire Nation?_

"I-I am Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, of the House of Amaterasu, brother of Princess Azula, son of Ozai and Princess Ursa, nephew of Crown Prince Iroh, cousin of Prince Lu Ten, grandson of the Great and Mighty Firelord Azulon—"

_That is your ancestry. But does your ancestry define who you are?_ _Are you nothing but a brother, or a son, or a cousin? Nothing more?_

"I don't know," Zuko admitted.

The Voice was disappointed when it spoke again. _Then you are not ready to know what I brought you here for._

"Ready to know what?"

_You will know the answer when you are ready_. _But now it is time for you to go back to the living world._

Zuko's heart leapt into his throat. "Mom—"

_Your mother made her decision, and you cannot change it now. Do not spend life hating yourself for this, my son. Honor her sacrifice. Live. _

"But you're a spirit! You're the great father of the Fire Nation!" Zuko cried. "You have to be able to do something!"

The Voice was heavy. _Not even a spirit can change the past, no matter how many regrets and sorrows result. Remember: Nothing happens without a reason, nothing without a consequence. I grieve for your misfortune, but it is not all darkness. Perhaps you can amend for my mistake. For my children's mistake._

"Your mistake?"

_There is someone waiting for you. _The volcano, the light, everything was fading around Zuko. The warm feeling was slipping away. _Go to her._

"What do you mean?" Zuko asked desparately. The blackness was creeping up around him again. "What are you talking about?"

_To teach another to forgive, you must first learn to forgive yourself_, the Voice said cryptically. _To bring back harmony to an unbalanced world, you must first restore your own inner peace._

And Zuko was falling into thin air again.

* * *

><p>Suki was appalled by Sokka' rant. She was aware of his crush on her—really, even if he had been less obvious, Azula's mocking hints were less than subtle—but this was taking it onto an all new level. "Sokka, you can't accuse Jet of being a thug!"<p>

"I agree with Suki," Azula interjected amusedly. "A more accurate description would be a terrorist."

They ignored her. "Jet's messed up, Suki," Sokka insisted. "I just saw him beat and rob an old man. A harmless old man! Just for the fun of it."

Suki crossed her arms, refusing to believe Sokka' story. Jet couldn't have done that. Jet was a Freedom Fighter, someone who fought the Fire Nation and liberated the people. Who stopped atrocities from happening. Sokka was just jealous, because Jet was a better leader than him. "The old man was probably a Fire Nation soldier."

"Yeah!" Aang agreed. "And Jet's not messed up. He just has a really different, really fun lifestyle."

They ignored him too. "He was just an _old_ _man_, Suki! He didn't even do anything except try to walk through the forest!" Sokka stomped on the wooden plank frustratedly, making the structure sway, though not topple. "Why won't you believe me?"

"I want to hear Jet's side of the story," Suki said firmly. She was sure that Jet had an explanation for the old man. Besides, Sokka probably just disliked Jet. "Sokka, I remember what happened with Haru."

* * *

><p>Ozai's arrival was unexpected, but not surprising. He had forced his way in, pushing aside the frightened young servant girl at the doorway, and stomped in front of Ryuo's tea-table. "I am waiting for an explanation, Minister."<p>

Ryuo slowly put down his cup, taking his time to admire the fine work—the drawn dragon's miniscule scales, the smoothness of the porcelain and the careful shape of vessel—before meeting the angry glare of the second prince. Azulon's foul little brat he was keeping an eye on, the little fool who didn't even understand the basics of politics. Did he understand that if walls of stone and metal could speak so much, a servant could speak much more?

"And what explanation may that be, Your Highness?" Ryuo responded calmly. A lifetime at court had taught him how to conceal his true feelings, but more importantly, it taught him patience. Many courtiers could hide their emotions well enough—Lord Ganzhuo's young niece was a master at it—but few could wait long enough to reap any true benefits.

The brat was obviously not one of the few who could wait. "You promised me a throne," he snarled out, attempting to be menacing. It came out more like a petulant whine of a young boy who was used to getting his own way. After a lifetime on the battlefield and in the court, serving under two Firelords and with countless ambitious courtiers, Ryuo was hardly the type to be intimidated by a foul-tempered princeling. "And yet I have seen you do nothing but talk and drink tea."

Ryuo smiled complacently. "It has been a week, my prince. And despite Azulon's age and Iroh's foolishness, they still pose a danger should we try to seize the throne by force. Besides, you can conquer nothing in a day. Ba Sing Se took ninety-three years to fall; the Southern Water Tribe suffered raids for almost fifty years before we captured the last waterbender; the western provinces of the Earth Kingdom took over ten years to submit to the rule of the Firelord—"

"The Air Nomads were taken care of in a single day—"

"And how many years of planning went into that single day of victory?" Ryuo countered. "We must emulate your grandfather, the most venerated Firelord Sozin. We must carefully plan, and put the pieces into place before swooping in for the kill."

Ozai brooded, but seemed to reluctantly recognize Ryuo's point. "Very well then, Minister. But I expect to see results soon."

"You will," Ryuo promised. "Before the first bud of spring blooms again, you will sit on the Dragon Throne."

"For your sake, Minister, I hope that you are right." The princeling's eyes glinted maliciously, but he seemed pleased enough by Ryuo's response to walk off.

As soon as Ozai was out of sight, Ryuo's serene expression dropped, and the man who was considered the most dangerous in the entire royal court appeared again. His amber snake's eyes surveyed the room beneath thick white eyebrows, and landed on the young servant girl huddled next to the door. Well, he couldn't have that. Ryuo raised a crooked old finger and beckoned for her to come forward.

The girl shuffled over, slowly, nervously, reluctantly. Her eyes darted to the doorway at intervals, as if attempting to guess if she could escape the attentions of her master before he struck. She knelt obediently at his feet, head submissively lowered.

Ryuo grabbed her pointed chin, jerking it up. He could feel the girl trembling in his grasp, like a rabbit-fawn before an enormous wolf-bear. A perfect act, one he himself would have trouble discerning. "What did you see?"

As the girl's eyes met his, he was pleased to find that the fear that the mild rabbit-fawn's scared eyes had been replaced by a gaze as clever and cold as the mythical viper-foxes.

* * *

><p>After an evening of arguing over Jet's abilities and choices, Suki and Sokka still disagreed. It really would be quite amusing, except for the promise Azula had made. It would be a lot easier to facilitate a relationship if Suki was not so stubbornly defensive of Jet. Azula had gone to sleep contemplating the situation.<p>

It was just before dawn when she awoke. She pulled aside the tent flat and glanced outside, but there was nothing.

That was strange. Azula was a light sleeper, and she could have sworn that something was moving amongst the branches. Then she saw what had woken her: several of the "Freedom Fighters" were gathered together, on the ground. They were walking away.

Curious. Jet was obviously going to do something, and if he was going to do it in the dark, he obviously didn't want certain people to see it. Since everyone except Aang, Suki, Sokka, and herself were already part of Jet's group, it was clear that he was trying to hide it from them.

A surge of adrenaline filled Azula's veins. She always liked challenges.

* * *

><p>"Ty Lee?" Mai called into the forest. She felt a slightly worried when no response came. "Ty Lee?'<p>

Piandao gave a light cough next to her. "We've been searching since the afternoon, Lady Mai. Perhaps Lady Ty Lee lost her way in the forest?"

The nighttime darkness was just making way for the dim half-light that signaled the rising sun. Mai hadn't seen Ty Lee since late in the afternoon. Piandao's conclusion sounded probable, but she didn't want to think about Ty Lee alone and wandering in a forest full of rebels. Sure, Ty Lee could take care of herself, but if the Avatar was with them, and Mai couldn't be sure that Azula would be too merciful…She remembered what had happened to some of the men stationed on the prison rig. Mai felt a faint wave of nausea rise; she forced it down.

"Keep looking," she ordered. "Maybe we haven't found the Avatar, but we can't leave without Ty Lee."

Piandao nodded quietly. "Lady Mai…you will not like to hear this, but I believe that we should go back to Gaipan." He raised a hand, sensing her protest against the idea. "I will return to search for Lady Ty Lee with a contingent of soldiers—and the Avatar, as well."

Mai frowned internally at Piandao's words, not failing to note that he had added the Avatar on at the end. Something about Piandao didn't add up, but he hadn't betrayed her yet. "If the Gaipan soldiers are competent enough to find the Avatar, I would have told them to accompany us. As it is, we are the best chance, both to find and to capture the Avatar."

Piandao raised an eyebrow. "May I have permission to speak freely, my lady?"

"Of course."

"Lady Mai, I do not believe that you should continue, for your own health," Piandao said bluntly. "You have not been resting enough recently, and—"

"I am _fine_," Mai replied through gritted teeth. Piandao noticed that the young princess was uncharacteristically pale, her eyes sunken and almost feverishly bright. "You overreach yourself, Master Piandao, and my well-being is none of your business. Now _keep looking._"

* * *

><p>Following the strange rustling noise was not very difficult. Clearly, Jet and his friends lacked stealth training, and thought that they could make up for it by hiding high up enough that you couldn't see them. What was even easier was that they were walking along the stream; if anything happened, Azula could easily defend herself.<p>

Suddenly, Azula heard a noise that was very definitely _not_ made by Jet or his friends.

A sniffle. A very feminine sniffle.

She froze. The small group she was following were Jet's best fighters: the tiny boy known as the "Duke", the tomboyish Smellerbee, the silent Longshot, the huge Pipsqueak, and Jet himself. They weren't the type to sniffle. And only one of them was a girl.

Azula berated herself for losing sight of her prey. This wasn't Jet. But if it wasn't Jet, well, she couldn't imagine anyone else traveling through the forest…no, she could. She could imagine someone—several someones—traveling through the forest in search, not of the Freedom Fighters, or Jet himself, but the Avatar's bison. And of those someones, the only one who would cry was…

"Ty Lee? Is that you?"

The sniffles and rustling stopped. There was abrupt silence in the forest, broken only by the regular hum of the wind.

Azula debated whether to show herself or not. If it was Mai, it would be a whole other story, but Ty Lee was fairly harmless by herself. She wouldn't attack, at least, not unless she felt threatened. "Ty Lee, it's me. Azula." Azula carefully stepped into the open, muscles tense just in case the other girl proved to be dangerous.

A pink figure dropped down from the branches from a height a lot higher than what Azula expected. Ty Lee must have really improved in the years since they had last met "Azula?" she gasped. Then she ran forward and hugged Azula tightly. "I missed you!"

Yes, it was definitely Ty Lee. Azula allowed Ty Lee to continue for another ten seconds, then gently pulled the acrobat off her. "Did you come alone?"

Ty Lee shook her head miserably. "Mai and Piandao and me, we came to look for you…" Here her eyes widened as if she just remembered that she was supposed to capture Azula and the Avatar. "But then I got lost in the forest, and I can't find my way back to Gaipan, and I can't find Mai, and I saw this boy sometime ago, and he was saying that he was going to flood Gaipan, and he wanted to kill everyone, and I can't do anything, and I'm scared and hungry, and—"

One phrase in Ty Lee's long sentence struck a chord. "The boy said that he would flood Gaipan?" Azula asked, her brow furrowed. That boy would probably be Jet, but…the pieces all fell into place: the blasting jelly they had taken from the Fire Nation troops, the dam at the edge, Jet's reluctance for them to leave, the river next to them. She grabbed Ty Lee by the shoulders. "Did he say how?"

Ty Lee shook her head, startled. "I don't know. I was scared, 'cause a big guy caught me, and I tried blocking his _chi_, but he was so _big_, and I barely escaped, and—"

There wasn't enough time. Azula cursed silently. "Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"To save the village." She pointed at the river. "Which direction did you come from?" If Ty Lee was here, then that meant that the Fire Nation knew that the Avatar was here. If anyone died, it would be blamed on the Avatar, and, by proxy, on her. She wouldn't let some peasant boy ruin her plan.

Ty Lee scratched her head. "Err…that way?" She gestured toward the left.

"Let's go then." Azula formed a large, flat, thick plate of ice roughly the size of a large sled. "Get on here." Aang and Suki should be nearby, close enough for the water to be able to flow through anway. Ty Lee could warn them, and while thy would be unlikely to believe her at first, Azula could honestly say that she had not met anyone who could stay mad at Ty Lee for long.

Ty Lee hesitantly followed Azula onto the slab, which tipped precariously. "Is this safe?"

Probably not, but Ty Lee didn't need to know that. "Hold on tight," Azula advised. "We're going full speed ahead."

* * *

><p>"You're lying." But Suki's voice wavered and Aang could tell that she didn't really believe what she was saying. "Jet wouldn't do that. You're just trying to turn us against him."<p>

"But I heard him say it! He's using you to help him flood the valley!"

"I think we should go check," Aang said. "I mean, it can't hurt to go and see if she's right or not. Can it?"

Suki looked in the direction of the dam miserably. "Fine. Let's go."

Aang and the cheerful pink girl exchanged concerned looks, and Aang was just about to laugh at the weirdness of him and the pink girl both worrying over Suki when he felt someone sharp lightly touching his neck.

"You aren't going anywhere, Avatar." The knife girl's monotone cuts across the clearing. "Good to see you again, Ty Lee."

Ahead of him, Suki was being held prisoner by the swordsman. She glared at pink the girl. "I knew you were tricking us! We can't trust any of them, Aang."

The pink girl shakes her head fervently. "No, really! I was telling the truth! Mai, you have to listen, there's a boy who's gonna blow up the dam flood Gaipan."

The knife girl didn't look impressed. "It's the dry season, Ty Lee. The dam barely holds enough water to…" She trails off as looks at the river he had just made. Aang winces as the knife digs a little deeper in his neck. "I see." She gives a long-suffering sigh and, to Aang's surprise, removes the knife, gesturing at the swordsmen to copy her action. "C'mon."

Suki is openly staring. "Are you just letting us go?"

Knife girl shrugs. "If I caught you, I'd have to go back home. And nothing is more boring than that."

And then she beckons to the pink girl and the swordsman and they vanish into the forest.

Aang and Suki gape at where the trio had disappeared before remembering that they were supposed to stop Jet.

* * *

><p>Azula had failed. Azula had <em>failed<em>. And the proof of her failure was rushing down the slopes, uprooting trees and debris, beating at the walls of the town—

"You're too late."

Azula whirled around and smashed Jet into the tree trunk, freezing him there with a solid casing of ice. "Maybe for that." This swaggering peasant in front of her didn't understand what he had done. Didn't understand the damage he had caused. A blade of ice moved until it was a hair's breadth away from his throat. "But I'm just in time to do this."

"You're bluffing." But his pupils were dilating with nervousness as the ice grew around him. A thin trickle of blood ran down his throat. "You wouldn't—the Avatar wouldn't let you—"

In response, Azula raised her hands, but then a sharp stiletto lodged itself right next Jet's neck. The peasant's eyes bulged in fear. Azula's arms tensed.

"Are you here to take care of the filth of the world as well, Azula?"

Azula slowly turned. Mai was standing there in her usual apathetic manner, boredly twirling a knife in her hand. "I didn't expect a fight today," she begins.

"And you won't get one," a familiar voice said behind her. Sokka was sitting on Appa, who mooed loudly at Mai. "Unless you want to fight a flying bison."

Mai shrugged. "Fine. You got me. I'll leave." She turned and walked down the cliff.

Azula frowned. It wasn't like Mai to just give up like this. Something was off about her old friend, but this wasn't the time to wonder about that. "Sokka, we have to do something about Gaipan."

"No need," her brother replied. "Jet's plan didn't work."

"What!" Jet's head snapped up. "How?"

Sokka turned to look Jet in the eye. "I warned them just in time. At first they didn't believe me. The Fire Nation soldiers assumed I was a spy. But one man vouched for me, the old man _you_ attacked. He urged them to trust me, and we got everyone out in time. The villagers are safe—from you."

Jet's face twisted unattractively. "You fool! We could have freed this valley?"

"Who would be there to be freed?" Sokka countered. "Everyone would be dead. Let's find Aang and Suki and leave this place."

"So," Azula said lightly as they flew down the cliff, "you saved Gaipan. Good job." Sokka had become…different, somehow, in those few moment talking with Jet. More mature than the meat-obsessed, goofy brother who mooned after Suki and had a habit of putting his foot in his mouth.

"Thanks." Sokka smiled. "But I've been meaning to ask you, what's going on between you and the girls pursuing us? You seem to know each other." His voice was deceptively casual.

Azula froze as she tried to come up with a way to answer. While Sokka wouldn't hurt her, not after years of being her brother in all but blood, she couldn't be sure that he would approve or even agree to conceal anything she choose to tell him. After all, Suki—

"Sokka! Azula!"

There was an old saying in the Fire Nation: speak of the spirits, and they shall appear. Azula was vaguely thankful for it at this moment. Now for the perfect way to distract Sokka from his mission…

* * *

><p>"You said you wanted to talk to me, brother?" Azula asked slyly.<p>

Sokka cleared his throat. Of their little group, he knew Azula best, and he doubted that she would do anything to hurt them, but there was something odd going on between her, the crazy pink girl, and the crazy knife girl. As her brother and protector, he felt that he should learn about exactly what was going on. "I wanted to ask—oomph!"

Suki had barreled into him. For a second, he wondered if she was going to knock him out for stealing Appa and foiling Jet's plan, but instead she grabbed his head and kissed him.

Suki. Was. Kissing. Him.

_Suki was kissing him!_

Sokka was only beginning to come to his senses and respond when she let go. He felt vaguely disappointed; surely he could have done something for his first kiss other than stand there like an idiot. But Suki talking now, and Sokka had spent enough time around girls to know to pay attention when they talked after kissing you. "…horrified. But then, Azula told me how you saved the villagers from Jet, how you got all them out of the valley before they could be drowned. I can't believe that Jet would do something like that, something like the Fire Nation…" she faltered a moment, clearly remembering the massacre on Kyoshi Island, but quickly pulled herself together. "I'm so proud of you, Sokka. You really are a great warrior—but more than that, you're a great man."

A great man. Suki had called him a great man! Sokka knew had a silly grin on his face at the moment, but he didn't care. Suki gave him one last hug and went over to help Aang with loading supplies onto Appa.

Azula was still standing there, smirking. "So?"

"So what?" Sokka asked stupidly.

"You wanted to talk to me about something."

"I did?" Sokka thought hard. He did, but somehow it seemed unimportant. Forgettable. "I forgot."

"Naturally." Azula gave a pleased nod, as if she expected it. "We should get on Appa, now, unless we want Aang and Suki to leave without us. Somehow, I have the feeling that you don't want that." She lightly patted him on the shoulder and walked past him.

Azula was halfway past him when he realized he wanted to ask her something. "Wait! How did you get Suki to…you know, kiss me?"

Azula turned to look at him in the eye, head slightly tilted. Her gold orbs flashed with amusement and something more…sinister. No, that couldn't be right. His head must be addled from the kiss. When she spoke, her voice was a low purr. "You know me, brother. I always deliver on my promises. _Always_."


	10. The Storm

**Title: **Frozen Fire: Waterbender

**Author: **Qwerky Qity

**Rating: **T

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 10: The Storm<strong>

"So you had a bad dream," Sokka said grumpily as he tried to go climb back into his sleeping bag despite the fact that the sun was already over the horizon. "Get over it."

Suki, being both less lazy and more disciplined, was currently ladling some porridge into the newly-chipped bowls, courtesy of Momo's sharp front teeth. At least the small lemur had left their cutlery mostly intact and usable. She patted Aang on the back. "Don't worry," she assured the distraught airbender. "He's just mad that you disturbed his beauty sleep."

One eye appeared from the dark depths of Sokka's sleeping bag. "Aren't you supposed to be on my side?"

"It's sort of hard to be on your side when you're moaning about losing your beauty sleep all the time," Suki said teasingly. Aang curled back into a ball next to her, looking mournfully at the ground. He had woken up screaming, and didn't seem to be his usual upbeat self this morning.

"I _do_ not! In fact, I—"

"Breakfast's ready." Suki had learned from experience that nothing got Sokka distracted faster than the announcement of cooked food, and Aang really didn't need to hear whatever grumpy comments Sokka was going to make. Turning back to Aang, Suki frowned worriedly and tried to catch Azula's eye, which was quite a difficult task when Azula decided that the map was more worthy of being looked at than her human companions.

On the other hand, Azula's focus and single-minded drive to reach the North Pole so the Avatar could learn waterbending was startling—and admirable—in its intensity. If she had trained her warriors half as well, Suki couldn't help thinking, Kyoshi Island would never have fallen. The Fire Nation would never have penetrated it, never had thought of penetrating it. If only she knew her duty better, if only…

Suki pushed the unhappy thoughts out of her head. Aang needed help right now, and she couldn't afford to relapse into her own despair. She reached over and tapped the airbender on his shoulder.

Aang jumped a foot. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Suki said gently. "I was just wondering if you want to eat something right now."

Aang should his head.

"Is your dream still upsetting you?"

Aang laughed nervously. "Upsetting me? Nothing upsetting me." He gave a big, overly-goofy smile. "See?"

Suki looked subtly behind her, but Azula was still, frustratingly, evaluating at the map. Did that girl have no ability to connect emotionally with others? There was no way that a map was more captivating than what was going on with Aang. "Aang…"

"I'm fine," Aang insisted. "Really."

"But your dream—"

"Do you want to know about my dream?" Sokka interrupted, scooting up to insert himself into her conversation with Aang. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. "I dreamed that food was eating people! Like, they were chasing us and trying to eat us up!"

Suki fought the urge to smack him. Sokka was a good person with a good heart, and there were moments when he proved to be extraordinarily intelligent and brave…but he was also a teenage boy who lacked certain traits like tact and sensitivity. "Sokka—"

"Also, Momo could talk." Sokka turned to the flying lemur, currently perched on a rolled up sleeping bag clutching a moon peach. It blinked as it was faced with Sokka's accusing finger. "You said some _very_ unkind things."

Momo chirped happily and leaned forward to bit into the peach.

* * *

><p>"What happened?" Ty Lee asked brightly as she cartwheeled into the dining room. "Are we leaving?"<p>

"Sure." Lady Mai stared at the delicate egg-flower soup without touching it, and turned to her friend. "Where do you want to go?"

"Dunno…" Ty Lee scooped up a fancy-looking scone and took a big bite. Piandao could hear the cook wince: she had made the scones for Lady Mai, and he didn't think that she looked very kindly upon the princess' wayward friend eating them up. "This place seems nice. And the boys here are really cute."

"They're servants, Ty Lee."

"I know, I know. But they're still cute." Ty Lee smiled happily at the scone. "Hey, I really like this. You should try it, Mai."

Lady Mai declined and went back to picking at the meal set in front of her.

Piandao frowned. Lady Mai was acting quite strange, and not just today either. He had thought that she would be eager to capture the Avatar, but she had let him go at the last moment, despite pursuing him rather determinedly for nearly a month. And then she had just walked away from the young Avatar's companions when the boy had threatened her with the Avatar's bison, of all things, though she had shown no fear of the creature during prior encounters. And then there was the skilled young shruiken mistress and the stumbling girl he had caught after the incident near the river. Her control over her emotions, so complete when he first met her, seemed recently to wane and wax as constantly as the moon. Not to mention her dietary habits. Lady Mai barely ate enough to keep a delicate invalid alive.

He was hardly a doctor, but even Piandao could guess at what malady Lady Mai had. He could feel the stirrings of pity in his heart for the girl—not even sixteen and her life was already so out of control. She didn't need any more complications, and from what Piandao knew of her and her situation, he doubted that she would welcome this one.

Thinking about Lady Mai brought his thoughts to another young woman, the Princess Azula, who was traveling with the Avatar. Like the rest of the Fire Nation, Piandao had known about the public banishment of Ozai the Monstrous after he had supposedly slaughtered his young daughter when she had showed no talent in firebending. He had thought it to be a little extreme at the time—after all, it wouldn't be the first time the Royal Family produced a non-bender, even though such an occurrence was extremely rare, with the last non-bender being born nearly five hundred years ago—but he had heard whispers of Firelord Azulon's second son from his comrades and wouldn't put such a thing past him. Now, it seemed mildly plausible that the Firelord had discovered that the young Princess was a waterbender and manipulated Ozai into killing the girl, which would neatly remove an embarrassment from the Royal Family and a rather disturbed prince from the line of succession. Nevertheless, her survival and the fact that she was in the companionship of the Avatar made this claim a little suspicious.

Princess Azula…perhaps it was time to learn something more about her.

* * *

><p>Every muscle in his body was sore as Zuko sat up. Or rather, tried to sit up.<p>

"Ow!" He winced as his head made contact with the wall, sending vibrations through his head and stars across his vision. Gingerly reaching up to rub the painful spot, Zuko took in his new surroundings. He was in what seemed to be a run-down shed. The stale smell of forgotten dust and rotting hay pervaded the space. He carefully pulled himself upright from the pile of rags he was lying on, and tried to stand up.

"Don't do that!"

Zuko's legs collapsed beneath him, partly because they refused to support his weight, partly because of the shock of the appearance of another person.

It was a girl with dark skin and brown hair that fell beneath her shoulders, carrying a small earthen bowl. She wore the simple garb of a commoner, though she had what was probably the largest water canteen Zuko had ever seen slung across her shoulder. She didn't seem like an enemy, which was good because Zuko was in no state to fight anyone off.

The girl hurried over, catching him before he could smash his head again the wall again. "You shouldn't be out of bed in your current condition," she scolded. "Now lay back down."

"Who are you?" Zuko demanded, trying to get up despite what she had said. The disrespect of this—this _peasant_ girl—was astonishing. He was technically dead, but still, even in all his years as a Fire Sage, no one had forgotten that he was of royal blood. And you don't command royalty around.

The girl sighed, made a noise that sounded vaguely like _boys_, and pushed him back down. "You haven't recovered the strength to get up yet, not after the injuries and starvation you suffered through, and you still need to eat something. I made you some chicken-duck broth; it's not very filling, but you won't be able to hold anything else down in your current condition." She uncovered the earthen bowl, and a mouth-watering aroma filled the shack. Still, Zuko couldn't just give in to this peasant like this. Even if her broth did smell delicious.

The girl blew on a spoonful of broth carefully. "Open your mouth."

"What?!" Zuko indignantly opened his mouth to tell the girl to _leave him alone_ when she took the opportunity to shove a spoonful of scalding broth in. Sputtering, he spat it back out. "I don't even know you! You can't just treat me like your pet patient! You're not my mother—"

He broke off.

_Mom_.

The girl carefully set down her bowl. When she looked at him, her eyes were soft with sympathy. "I'm sorry about your mother."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Zuko muttered, unwilling to let her see his face. He wouldn't cry in front of this girl. He wouldn't.

"The Fire Nation took my mother away from me too." She reached out and touched his hand comfortingly. "That's something we have in common."

"Oh." Zuko couldn't think of anything to say. He stared down at his lap. The silence was becoming unbearable. The girl clearly thought so too, because she made another attempt to coax a conversation out of him.

"My name is Katara." Katara was a strange name for a Fire National, but Zuko supposed that some of the more removed islanders were like that, and he had heard some jokes about naming traditions in the colonies. "Can you tell me yours?"

"I'm Zu—Zu—" Maybe that wasn't the best idea, to give his real name. He was supposed to be dead. "Uh—"

"Your name is Zuzu?"

* * *

><p>Azula frowned at the crowded marketplace. She had turned her head for one moment, and now, Sokka, as well as Suki and the Avatar, were out of sight.<p>

This was hardly a cause for worry, Azula decided. They were probably where they usually were when they disappeared on her at a marketplace, and she could easily find them. She might even not freeze them in giant ice cubes the next time they went shopping, like she threatened. A smirk graced her lips as she recalled the uncertain way Aang had asked if she was joking. The Avatar might be all-powerful, but Aang was only a boy, and little boys were so easy to control.

Yes, she was in a very good mood this morning. Azula began making her way over to the main streets of the marketplace when she felt herself bump into someone. "Watch where you're going!"

The boy mumbled an apology and shuffled off, dark copper robes trailing in the dust behind him. He was lucky that she was in a good mood today; otherwise, he might have found himself missing the use of a few limbs.

But Azula's good mood gradually disintegrated when she didn't find Sokka near the sword vendors, the pastry vendors, or even the meat if this wasn't disturbing enough on its own, Aang was not at the toy store, the pet store, or the hat store. Azula had no idea whatsoever of where Suki would be at. For a moment, she wondered if they had figured out something and left her behind, but then dismissed the idea immediately. None of them had the cunning to do such a thing, even if Sokka put the pieces—no. Not with Suki hanging around. Not when he still considered her his sister. What a joke, to even think that something like that could happen. After all, she thought as she turned around to go back to the campsite, overestimating your opponent would only lead to you slipping up and letting them—

A flash of dark copper caught the corner of her her eye. Azula instinctively resisted the urge to swivel her head and look, instead focusing on walking away as normally as she could from the crowded center and into the woods to the north.

The shouts and sounds of the villagers faded into a blur as she felt adrenaline surge through her veins. There were no sounds of footsteps behind her, but the shadows that occasionally fell across the path showed that the boy was still behind her.

Twenty feet into woods, Azula abruptly stopped. She heard a sharp hitch of breath behind, and turned around, observing her tail. It was the boy who had bumped into her. "Hello, boy."

"Where is the Avatar?" The boy drew dual swords out of nowhere, pointing them at her. "Why did you bring me here?"

A bounty hunter? Azula sighed internally and raised her hands, drawing water from dew around her. She allowed a smirk to show into her face. "I would tell you, but I'm afraid that you won't live long enough to find out."

The clang of steel against ice resounded through the trees.

* * *

><p>Sokka's eyes widened as he swallowed the beef-mutton. "This is really good!"<p>

The heavily-built woman in front of him tore into her own piece of meat. "The Gan Jin don't know what they're missing out on."

Sokka nodded fervently. They had been wandering along the marketplace after Azula had left them behind when they had seen two groups fighting—or at least, looking like they were about to fight. Suki, who seemed to still be worrying over the younger boy's dream, had told him to use his "Avatar powers" and resolve the dispute. Aang had been reluctant at first, and Sokka had pointed out that it wasn't their job to stop every single argument that came their way, but Suki had given him _the look_ and Sokka was stuck cheering Aang on to help the tribes.

Sokka couldn't believe the things he did to impress that girl.

After considering the situation for a while, Aang had told them his brilliant idea for solving the problem: have Suki go with the Gan Jin and Sokka go with the Zhang. They would each find out why the tribes hated each other so much and he could use that information to stop them from hating each other. And they could be finished just in time to catch up with Azula before she noticed they were gone. Sokka had been skeptical at first, especially since Aang wasn't exactly doing anything to resolve the problem himself, but this meat alone was worth it.

"So," he asked, changing the subject, "why don't you get along with the Gan Jin?"

The woman snorted. "Get along with that group of clean-loving prigs? Look at them, dragging umbrellas around on a day like this." She gestured at the clear skies. A bird chirped somewhere. "Does it look like it will rain?"

"O'cor not," Sokka mumbled through a mouthful of meat.

"And don't get me started on what happened a hundred years ago…"

* * *

><p>Katara quietly entered through the back door of inn. Zuzu had become quieter after his initial outburst, and no matter how much she tried, she couldn't get him to open up at all. So Katara had given up—at least for the time—and hurried back to the inn, where Aunt Hama would be sure to need her help, since this was one of the inn's busier times, with all of the merchants who had suddenly moved into the area. And she couldn't let the older woman onto the fact that she was caring for a Fire Nation boy in her spare time.<p>

"Katara?"

Katara looked up, eyes wildly looking around. Her shoulders relaxed when she saw the person who has called her name. "Oh. Hi, Aunt Hama."

Hama smiled benevolently at the young girl and patted her on the arm. "Where were you, Katara? I have not seen you since breakfast."

Her voice was gentle, as it always was, and Katara felt a twinge of guilt that she hoped does not show up on her face. She reasoned that if Aunt Hama even got gist of Zuzu's existence, she wouldn't hesitate to hurt him, and Zuzu didn't deserve that, no matter how rude or irritating he was. "Sorry, Auntie. I was just practicing my studies this morning." Studying had become a euphemism for waterbending. "I guess I lost track of time."

Aunt Hama's eyes narrowed slightly, but she remained smiling. "It is quite alright, Katara. Just make sure that you don't get hurt doing it."

"I will, Auntie." Katara silently let out a sigh of relief. "Is there anything for me to do?"

"Could you help me watch the cooks in the kitchen? The merchants ordered lunch in the inn, and I need to go to the front register to see if anyone else will be checking in today." Hama looked closely at Katara. "The chicken-turkey I bought yesterday has gone missing. I'm sure that Cook took it home for herself."

Katara felt another twinge of guilt. But Aunt Hama wouldn't punish Cook for the missing chicken-turkey, and Zuzu really needed something to eat. He was as thin as a stick. And she could make it up to Cook later. "Okay then, Auntie."

As Katara walked to the kitchen, her thoughts turned back to Zuzu. He was unlike anything she had imagined—sure and stubborn and having an almost regal air about him. As if he was part of the nobility instead of a slave boy the soldiers almost sold. And his eyes…she shuddered as she recalled the sharp golden eyes of her former master.

But Zuzu was different. Wasn't he?

* * *

><p>The stout, nondescripit middle-aged man in front of him smiled, reaching out with one hand to casually sweep the pieces of a Pai-Sho into disarray. They had been arranged in the queerest pattern Piandao had ever seen, twisted and flowing like a broken serpent-worm. "The winds have whispered to me of your arrival, Master of the White Lotus."<p>

Piandao inclined his head in greeting.

The stout man continued on. "But somehow, I do not think that you came here just to play a game."

Piandao picked up a tile, examining it slowly. The stone wheel carved by hand. "What do you know about the late Princess Azula?"

"The Firelord's granddaughter?"

"The very same."

The stout man hummed. "She's dead, isn't she? Died by her father's hand, quite a scandal. Such barbaric behavior, in the Royal Family too. Not to mention what Ozai did to his son."

Piandao's hand twitched around the tile, and he noticed with that the stout man's eyes flickered quickly to it. This man didn't miss a thing, which was why Piandao came to him for information. He was not the most reliable, but there was no one more well-informed. "And?"

The stout man's eyes glittered as he leaned forward. "Is it of any importance? What is dead stays dead, generally, at least. You won't learn anything by digging up her grave, if that's what you want to do."

"Perhaps we should find a more private place to speak?" Piandao's voice came out with an impatient tone he hadn't meant to put in it.

"Certainly, Master Piandao. Come with me." The stout man stood up, slowly making his way around the small bar, the customers immediately parting as he came upon them. Piandao caught sight of the gleam of a hidden knife. Not customers then, but bodyguards. Well, that was natural; a man who knew so much as this one did would not live to see another sunrise if he did not try to protect himself. No wonder this man was rarely known to wander outside of a little-known pub.

Entering the small back room, the first thing that struck Piandao was the strong, sticky aroma in it. Immediately, Piandao's eyes widened, and his hand instinctively went to his sword's hilt. But even as he was drawing it, he could feel his breathing grow weaker.

His sword clattered onto the ground.

"Y-you—"

"Yes," the stout man nodded satisfactorily. "Do not try anything with me, master swordsman Piandao. I may not be quite as skilled with the blade as you are, but experience has taught me that the head trumps the hands every time. Of course, I would not kill a brother of the White Lotus." He leaned backward in his chair, fixing his eerie gray-green eyes on Piandao. "How much is she worth to you?"

Did he want money? "How much?"

The stout man's eyes glittered again "I am not paid in gold. If I tell you all that I know, and you shall owe me one favor, which I can call in anytime I wish."

Piandao could feel his breath become shallower. It was probably a trick, but it wasn't as if the stout man wasn't known for tricks. "Done."

The stout man laughed and waved his hand. A small boy scurried in and removed a flower vase. "That was simple enough, no?" He reached behind him and took out a single scroll from the enormous bookshelf behind him. "Where to begin now? Princess Azula, I am sure you know is a curious personage, very curious indeed. A waterbender, I'm sure you know by now."

There was no point in nodding. This man knew everything.

"But I think that you are more interested in what happened that made her leave." The man tossed the scroll onto the floor and deftly pulled out another from the enormous mess behind him. "Ex-Prince Ozai, you see, was a little too interested in the throne for his own good…"

* * *

><p>The strength behind the next blow flung her against the trunk of a tall oak-pine. Azula hissed as the friction of the rough tree bark scraped against her back, opening scars that had been closed for years.<p>

_Daddy shoved her against the wall. "What did you hear, Azula?" His voice was gentle and doubly dangerous for it._

_Azula tried not to let her fear show on her face. Daddy hated weakness, hated her, she needed to prove that she was strong, that she could help Daddy, even if Daddy didn't want her help. "I didn't hear anything, honest, Daddy, I didn't…" Her voice trembled. _

_"I'm sure you did, Azula." Daddy stroked her cheek, his calluses rubbing roughly against her skin. A trickle of blood ran down her chin when she bit her lip to stop from screaming as heat seared her face. Sparks fell from Daddy's hand, burning little spots and scars across her face and neck. Azula tried not to think of Daddy and Lord Shan in the secret room and talking of terrible, treasonous things, things that would get them killed…_

_"Daddy, please lemme go, I won't tell anyone, I promise, Daddy, I promise, promise, _promise_…"_

_And then Zuko, and screaming, and blood that stained oceanwater red, all twisted and jumbled and—_

Azula realized her face was wet. It took her a moment to realize that the wetness came from blood, not tears.

* * *

><p>"…and there was that nasty business with the kinslaying and the burning of Zuko the Traitor…"<p>

"Zuko the Traitor? How is he a traitor?"

The stout man paused, and Piandao cursed himself for giving away more information. "Of course. Have you not heard about the burning of the Fire Temple? The traitor Zuko was implicated in the conspiracy to lower the morale of your glorious nation by destroying the spiritual center of the Fire Nation and executed at His Majesty's pleasure."

What did this mean for the White Lotus? Piandao had been uncertain of the true loyalties of the young prince, but could it have been that he had realized the mistakes of his nation? Still, even if the he had, it would be too late to do anything. Piandao sent a mental prayer to Agni for the prince. He deserved that, at least.

"Anyway," the stout man continued, "Princess Azula continued to the South Pole on the flagship _Sunniva_. Twenty-seven corpses were recovered in the following days and quickly identified as the crew of the missing vessel. They bore evidence of multiple cuts and wounds from what was presumed to be a sharp metal weapon, though the official report had it that they died from blood loss. I believe that there was an investigation into the sale of your swords at the same time."

Piandao nodded slowly. So far, the pieces appeared to add up, and he remembered the furor over the disappearance of the _Sunniva_. Admiral Chan's eldest son had served on the flagship, and was among the dead.

"And there you have it." The stout man folded his hands together and looked at Piandao with those gray-green eyes again. "Any questions?"

"Why was she born a waterbender?"

"What makes you think that she was born one?"

Piandao frowned. "Surely, you cannot _become_ a bender."

"But why not? We talk of spirits and destiny and lineages, but no one knows what allows one man to move the elements at will and prevents another from doing the same. It is not going too far to believe that Princess Azula become a waterbender simply because she is."

"But you must have a theory—an idea—"

"I do, certaintly. But as you said, it is only a theory. Not something I know, not worth sharing." The stout man smiled. So this was the trick.

Well, Piandao was clearly not going to get anymore from him. It was time to leave.

* * *

><p>Ryuo sipped his cup of wine as he watched the young prince across from him trade glances with the servant pouring his wine from behind his sleeve; his favorite, if his contact was to be believed. Ryuo carefully inspected the facial features, the posture and carriage—or perhaps that wasn't the right word. The wench was disgustingly transparent about her low-born heritage, lingeringly about the prince, brushing her hand over his longer than necessary. But her face was pleasing enough. Ryuo would even call her pretty.<p>

There was nothing wrong with pretty servant girls. Or pretty opera girls, a voice whispered in his mind nastily; Ryuo banished the memory quickly, going back to the problem at hand. Which was that the succession had to be kept clear. Princess Mai had not yet had a child, or even a hint of pregnancy, and court gossip indicated that if the situation between her and her husband remained the way it was, she never would. Agni knew what would happen if Prince Lu Ten repeated his great-grandfather's mistake of not fathering a son on his proper wife and left his semi-legitimate children by various low-born concubines to battle it out for the throne after his death. The Fire Nation had been lucky last time, but both Azulon and Iroh had been careful to ensure that the succession remained unblocked by younger sons with ambitions too big for their weak royal claims.

There was, of course, need for a spare son in case the worst happened, but as soon as it became obvious that the Crown Prince and his son would likely live on…well, as much as the courtiers pretended otherwise, everyone knew that Ozai had been banished not for any of his admittedly numerous faults but to prevent a succession crisis from erupting again after Azulon died. The nonsense about burning his son and killing his daughter was just that, nonsense. The annals of Fire Nation history hid enough stories of father killing sons and brothers killing brothers that one more wouldn't be minded at all.

Yes, there was nothing wrong with pretty servant girls at all. And it was quite a pity that Princess Mai had no children…

The Firelord's voice interrupted Ryuo's thoughts with a strength that belied its long years.

"Tell me, Minister Ryuo, how fare our efforts to end the rebellion in New Fire City? Have their terrorists surrendered yet?"

It was especially loud because Ryuo had the fortune to be placed at the Firelord's immediate left, or at least as close to the immediate left as possible as a high-ranking official could be, considering that the Firelord always sat apart on a raised dais in the front of the room. The disadvantage, naturally, was that the attention of every mealy-mouthed courtier and every ambitious general was fixated on him.

"They are extraordinarily well-prepared," Ryuo said carefully. He had served his entire life under Firelord Azulon—back when Firelord Sozin was still alive, the then Prince Azulon had been the first one to recognize his political talent—and he knew Ryuo better than most of the court, even better than Ryuo's own family. But Azulon was also the Firelord, and his interests were not necessarily Ryuo's interests. "And the earthbender terrorists are fighting on their home territory. But the generals in New Fire City say that their numbers are dwindling, despite the lack of respite in the attacks. I believe that we can quell their uprising before the end of summer."

The end of summer was when the comet would return. It was also when Ryuo's plans would either come to fruition or make him a head shorter.

"That is good news," the Firelord said. His gaze was bright and sharp as he evaluated his Minister of Intellgence. "Have you heard, Minister, of the disturbing equipment in an underground facility that the 442nd regiment found last week?"

Ryuo considered his options. "I have not."

"See that you do, Minister. I want a full report by tomorrow." The Firelord looked at him meaningfully. Across from Ryuo, he saw Crown Prince Iroh frown slightly.

The meaning was clear: the Firelord wanted to hear about what his second son was doing.

* * *

><p>Zuko's foot hit the rafters of the ragged roof painfully.<p>

After following Katara back to the inn where she worked, he had attempted to sneak in. His first try had been quickly foiled by a stray fox-cat that had attached itself to him on his his way here. He hadn't wanted to hurt the little animal, but he had only lightly singed its fur. It didn't really count as hurting it, anyway.

He peered down at through a hole in the thatched roof. It was small but neatly arranged, with a heavy wooden box laying in the center of the big table. The sound of footsteps forced Zuko to move away from the hole, tensing as he tried not to make too many sounds. Spying was difficult business.

_Clunk._

Zuko hissed a curse out under his breath as his sore, bruised foot hit the rafters again. Agni, couldn't they just fix their roof?

"What's that noise? Is someone there?" The voice was crochety, like the old ladies who had counseled Uncle Iroh and later Lu Ten. A pang rose in Zuko's chest at the thought of the loss of his old life, but he stifled the feeling before it could grow. He was supposed to be spying on Katara, to learn about her so that he could complete his task and then leave.

Seeing that the old lady's eyes were fixed on his appromixmate position, Zuko hastily moved away from the hole.

A second, familiar voice joined in. "It's just me, Auntie." Pushing the straw of the roof closer together to hide his position, Zuko looked down carefully, confirming his guess. Katara had slipped out of another entrance. Her hair was was pinned in strange loops. "Is-is it time?"

Auntie nodded. "Meet me behind the hill. Remember to make sure no one is following you."

That sounded faintly ominous. Could it be that Katara and her old aunt were involved in something? Zuko imagined them hiding behind a large rock, waiting for some guileless passerby…and had to muffle a snort of laughter. The thought of Katara and her old aunt wielding kitchen knives and wooden rolling pins as they tried to rob travelers was too absurd, even if the old lady's voice sounded creepy. He bent down to continue watch the two.

The old woman was speaking again. "Did you find out anything about Cook?"

"Um, I don't think that she took the chicken-turkey." Katara fidgeted slightly. "Maybe one of the customers saw it and wanted a midnight snack?"

"Yes, that is just like what a firebender would do, isn't it?" The old woman's voice had turned very quiet. Zuko frowned. "Hide and steal and harm? But no matter. It is only a chicken-turkey, and we cannot waste any more time. The sun will set soon enough."

"I'll meet you there, Auntie." Katara left the room with a nod at the old woman, Zuko scrambling to get off the roof and follow her to the mysterious hill. The more he knew about this girl, the better.

Unseen by either of them, the old woman's lips curled into a smile.

* * *

><p>Upon confirming that the blood on her face was not her own, Azula came to the only pleasing conclusion that she had somehow broken through her memories—or perhaps relived them—and defeated the boy. That was good news. He had been a rather difficult opponent, if an enjoyable one, and she wasn't sure how long she could have continued fighting if she had not subdued him right then. Besides, the sharp pains that ripped through her chest and midriff indicated that she was not the only one who had scored a strike. The blood on her face might not be her own, but the blood that was flowing down her ribs was another story.<p>

Slowly, Azula approached his body.

The body lying on the forest floor did not move, but if Azula looked closely, she could see the rise and fall of the chest through the thick layers of clothing. Not dead then. Azula wasn't sure if that was good or bad. There was no rope handy—she would have to fix that problem for next time—but the boy probably wouldn't wake up for a good long while.

That was definitely good news.

The boy's two dual swords were still clutched in his hands. She would have to fix that. Picking them up, she noted that the hilt was etched with a white lotus—just like the hilt of the swordsman who was helping Mai. Weighing them in her hand, Azula found that they were actually extraordinarily light, the blades sharp but thin. Not at all compatible with the heavy-handed strikes that they had produced.

She frowned, and, throwing the swords aside, bent over to examine the boy's face. The features were too soft to be Fire Nation, the skin too light to be Water Tribe, but the Earth Kingdom was varied enough that there wasn't just a single definitive Earth look. Azula frowned and approached him. Carefully peeling back the eyelid, she noticed that the eyes were a pale grey.

It was just her luck that she ended up with the most unidentifiable attacker ever, wasn't it?

Sighing, Azula wondered if going through his pockets would yield anything of value. He was unconscious and she was bored, so why not? It might even tell her something. She turned the boy over and began digging through the folds of cloth. By Agni, who on earth wore clothing like this? How could he even walk, much less fight, with such loose material hanging everywhere? And it only complicated her search; he could have hidden something anywhere—in his pockets, in his sleeves, in the too-many folds of his robes.

Azula paused as she felt something—a little, rock-sized piece, the size of a Pai-Sho piece. Come to think of it, it probably was a Pai-Sho piece. Azula pulled her hand back out.

Indeed, it was. The piece had a white lotus carved on it, just like the boy's swords and the swordsman's sword. Clearly, there was something very significant about the white lotus—but why would two people, so different, both carry it? Examning the piece, Azula considered the possibilities.

First, the white lotus could signify a kind of committee or group of swordsmen. That was unlikely, because even though Azula knew very little about fighting styles, she could see that the boy and the swordsman were entirely different in the way they utilized their weapons. The swordsman was learly worthy of his title, and his sowrd worked like an extension of his arm, completely in sync with his every command. The boy, on the other hand, treated his swords like they were tools that he used to channel his power with. While the swordsman truly depended on his sowrd itself to fight, the boy depended more on the power behind his blows. Therefore, while it was not impossible that the two were of one order, it was highly unlikely.

Another theory that could explain the coincidence was that the two were still of the same group, but the group was dedicated not to swordsmanship but to the capture of the Avatar. Like her first theory, this theory both made sense and didn't make sense. On one hand, both the boy and the swordsman had fought against her, and the swordsman was clearly an ally, not a servant, of Mai's. Since Azula didn't remember Mai's father knowing anyone fitting the swordsman's description, he was probably hired for the sole sake of aiding Mai on her quest. She could be wrong, but from what she had seen of the interactions between them, Azula doubted it. Still, the swordsman had never seemed particularly aggressive toward the Avatar, an attitude Azula couldn't account for.

Slowly standing up—the wounds that boy had inflicted hurt more than Azula would admit, even to herself—she kicked the boy in the stomach. Better for him to wake up now, when she still had the strength to question him than for him to surprise her. Besides, it wasn't like he could go anywhere after having lost that much blood.

"Get up!" Azula kicked him again.

His eyes opened.

But before Azula had a chance to react, the boy had already sprung up, and Azula felt herself thrown back yet again by a strength that seemed beyond the boy's thin frame. She reached for her water, not expecting that the boy would be able to get far with his wounds, when suddenly he leapt up into the trees, twenty feet at a time, as swiftly and surely as a squirrel-bird. Jumping from branch to branch, he disappeared within moments into the dense, concealing leaves. He had left behind his swords and his tile.

It was physically impossible. The boy shouldn't have been able to move like that, not with his injuries. Not even Ty Lee could do that.

Unless…

Azula's eyes widened.

* * *

><p>"It's raining!" Sokka cried as he tried to find somewhere to take shelter under. Not seeing anything nearby (the Zhang didn't abide with such nonsense such as umbrellas), he was forced to run around with his shirt over his head like the rest of the Zhangs.<p>

Nearby, the Gan Jin sniffed triumphantly. Now the Zhangs would have to admit that the Gan Jin were superior.

The Zhangs didn't agree. "You dirty, rotten Gan Jins only care about yourselves! We have sick people, and you don't even give us a simgle umbrella!"

"Who asked you not to bring umbrellas?" the leader of the Gan Jin retorted angrily. "We have old people who need them more than your sick people!"

"Sick people need them more!"

"Old people!"

"Sick people!"

The argument was slowly evolving into a fight. Through the thickening rain, Sokka could see someone was wielding a humongous bone that he was fairly sure had been in his mouth a few minutes ago as a weapon. Now that was an idea. Maybe he could do it to those girls who had been so keen on capturing them…Sokka walked backward to evaluate the usefulness of the bone. Yep, it was definitely a viable—

A ruined umbrella hit the place Sokka's head had just been. Sokka yelped and hurried back to where Suki and Aang had taken cover, behind one of the Gan Jin's tents.

"Somehow," Sokka whispered to Suki, "I don't think this is going very well."

She shot him an exasperated look. "You think?"

Aang wrung his hands. "What do we do now? Did you guys learn anything about why the Zhangs and the Gan Jins hate each other?"

"The Gan Jins said that a Zhang named Wei Jin knocked out their former patriarch Jin Wei and stole a sacred orb," Suki said. "I guess I can't blame the Gan Jin for disliking the Zhangs so much; I know that if someone had tried to steal Avatar Kyoshi's sacred fans, we would have never forgiven them."

"What?" Sokka was appalled. "Jin Wei was only trying to help Wei Jin! The feud is the Gan Jin's fault for arresting Jin Wei!"

"Sokka," Suki said in _that_ tone of voice. "Don't argue."

Sokka sputtered, but Aang lit up. "Guys, I have an idea."

* * *

><p>The rainwater that dripped down Azula's tunic was a diluted pink. She staggered to the nearest tree, leaning against it. Her pale hands trembled against the rough bark, but Azula was couldn't find it in her to care. Twenty feet, and she was already down. How pathetic.<p>

That boy must have inflicted internal injuries, Azula though grimly. That's why she had bled so much, why she couldn't heal them completely. She might be able to fight without much any real training, but healing serious wounds were beyond her ability. And if she couldn't do anything about her wounds—

No, don't go there. It would be such a waste, after what she had survived. If she could live, in spite of the attempts of Ozai, Azulon, and her idiot brother—Sokka or Zuko, a tiny voice asked in her; Azula told the voice to shut up, no matter which she was talking about, they were both idiots who nearly got themselves and her killed—then she could live through this.

Azula slid down, sitting on the hard ground. Her breathing was uneven. The forest was becoming fuzzy. Not good signs. One hand went instinctively to the place the blood was flowing from, but that did little good. Azula could bend blood out; bending blood in was much more difficult.

Maybe they would come for her, Aang and Suki and Sokka. Or at least Sokka, like he had found her in the Fire Nation ship, all those years ago, found her and persuaded Hakoda to keep her. Sokka wouldn't abandon her.

He wouldn't.

Azula didn't know how long she sat there, but no matter how she tried, she couldn't find the energy to get up again. And the rain wouldn't stop. Only a few hours ago, this would have been fine, nothing more than a minor inconvenience. But now, when she could barely move, much less bend the water away, it was becoming cold and uncomfortable.

Then she saw the vague silhouette of a something. A boy.

"Sokka? Is that you?"

The sihouette stopped. It wasn't Sokka then. Besides, it was carrying swords. Sokka used a boomerang. Azula tried again.

"Zuko?"

Yes, it must have been Zuko because the silhouette began moving again toward her. Zuzu was here. She was safe.

She was safe.

* * *

><p>Katara was at the foot of the hill when she realized that someone was following her. From the faint sounds of effort and pain, it was a someone who was hungry, tired, and had hurt his foot.<p>

Tui and La. Katara smothered a sigh.

"Zuzu, I know you're there."

Immediately, the sounds disappeared. Katara supposed that she should have expected that Zuzu would follow her, him being the stubborn, hotheaded boy that he was. But it was still irritating, especially when Aunt Hama was also going to be here to help her practice her waterbending.

Katara's blood turned to ice at that though. Aunt Hama didn't know about Zuzu! What if he suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the night? Darting a look up at the night sky, Katara gave a silent prayer of thanks that there wasn't a full moon tonight. Maybe if Zuzu left quickly, he could get out of here before Aunt Hama appeared and saw him. "Zuzu," she hissed at the grasses. "I know you're here. But you've got to leave. Can you hear me? Zuzu?"

"Who's Zuzu?"

Katara jumped and turned around to face Aunt Hama, hoping that she didn't look guilty. "Zuzu's little rabbit-puppy I adopted a few days ago. I thought I saw it." She then raised her voice so that Zuzu could hear the next part. "I didn't want it here, just in case it draws unnecessary attention. That would be bad."

She heard a faint rustling in the tall grasses. If Tui and La were good, then that was Zuzu quietly leaving. But somehow, Katara knew that Zuzu wasn't likely to just leave like that. Her heart sank horribly at the thought.

"Yes, it would," Aunt Hama agreed. With a twist of her wrist, she drew the moisture from the nearby vegetation. Once, this had bothered Katara a lot, but Aunt Hama was right when she said they were merely plants. They would grow back, after all. "Shall we begin now?"

Katara nodded distractedly and began the forms. First, they simply moved the water back and forth between each other—the push and pull of the tides. It was a relaxing sequence normally, but this time, Katara's heart hammered with worry. She hadn't told Zuzu she was a waterbender. What if he chose to confront her right now? Or worse, what if he went back and told the entire town? Katara knew that with Aunt Hama's waterbending prowess, it was unlikely that they would be captured by villagers, but the soldiers might come. And if there were enough soldiers, who knew if she and Aunt Hama would be enough to defeat all of them?

"Katara!"

"Huh?" Katara blinked confusedly. "Did something happen?"

Aunt Hama pointed a knarled finger on the ground, where a wet spot was spreading. Katara felt her face grow warm. "Katara, is something wrong?"

Katara quickly shook her head. How could she have been so foolish, to let her thoughts get in the way of her training. Aunt Hama would definitely know something was wrong now. "I'm fine, Auntie. Just a little tired."

Aunt Hama gave a satisfied nod. "You must be. Chasing rabbit-dogs is hard work. Let's skip the basic forms for tonight then. You're familiar enough already anyway."

Did Aunt Hama know? But Aunt Hama couldn't have, because she continued the forms, just like every other night. Katara began to hope. If this could just go on, they could finish this night's training, and then go home, and she could sneak off and explain everything to Zuzu. Zuzu might be stubborn and bullheaded, but he had a good heart. He wouldn't tell on them if he knew the whole truth. Oh Tui and La, if only that could happen…

The sharp crackling of ice brought Katara back to earth. Her eyes widened as they caught the enormous chunk of ice, the edges as sharp as a knife, coming at her. Too clumsily, too slowly, Katara tried to bend the ice away or at least break off the sharp part.

And this time, Aunt Hama was only standing there, unperturbed. Was she really going to let Katara die? Did she know about Zuzu?

"Watch out!"

A burst of red-hot fire suddenly flashed in front of Katara, making her stumble backward in surprise and horror. Surely the firebenders hadn't found them already. But then the voice registered in her mind. "Zuzu? Why are you here?"

It was Zuzu; his scar is umistakeable, even in the half-light. He waved his hands wildly, sparks trailing from where his fingers had been. "She was going to kill you!"

"I wasn't." Aunt Hama's tone had changed. It now sounded gravelly and cold, and there was almost cruel note to it, completely different from the concerned aunt she had been mere moments before. "I was trying to draw you out, firebender."

Zuzu frowned. "Why?"

In response, Aunt Hama raised her double water whips, smiling maniacally. She was almost unrecognizable. "You die today, firebender!"

"No!" Katara jumped in front of Zuzu. "Aunt Hama, he's not a bad person! Please!"

"Get out of the way, Katara," Aunt Hama warned. "Or you'll die with him."

Quicker than Katara could have imagined, Aunt Hama had thrown both water whips, now ice blades as Zuzu. Luckily, Katara managed to catch them before they could hit their target. "Aunt Hama, listen to me, he's just a boy, he's been hurt by the Fire Nation too, they killed his mom—"

Aunt Hama gave a wordless howl of rage as the flowers around her withered. More water, more weapons. Oh why didn't Aunt Hama want to listen? Katara didn't want to fight, she just didn't want Zuzu to be hurt.

Zuzu seemed quite capable of holding his own though. He was matching Aunt Hama, blow for blow. Steam billowed between them as fire and water clashed.

"Get out of here, Katara!" he yelled at her as he punched twin fireballs Aunt Hama managed to dodge just in time. Another second and she would have been reduced to ash, or at least been pushed down on the grassy meadow. To be fair, Zuzu didn't look like he was wholeheartedly fighting Aunt Hama. "She's crazy!"

Aunt Hama grunted as she fell to the ground to avoid the sheet of flame Zuzu had bent. She reached out to Katara. "Help me!"

Katara was about to step forward when Zuzu grabbed her arm, and, using his free hand to create a huge amount of flames that propelled them down the hill, past the paths that led to the village. Katara struggled, but in vain. Zuzu was a lot stronger than he seemed. That or he had been tricking her all along.

From what she had seen tonight, the second option was becoming likelier and likelier. And to think that she had tried to help him!

Finally, after a lifetime being clamped int he air, Zuzu set her down. Katara immediately backed away from him. In the distance, Katara could still see the lights that marked the village she had called home for the last almost nine years of her life. They were so far away. It would take her hours to walk back, and she couldn't do so in the dark anyway. Tears stung at her eyes as Katara cursed her own foolishness.

Zuzu, completely unaware, was babbling on. "We should we safe here. I guess we'll just have to stay in the barn for tonight, and tomorrow I'll find someone who can help us—"

"Us?" Katara cut across him. "There is no 'us.' There has _never_ been an 'us.' If you didn't see fit to kidnap me away from Aunt Hama—"

Zuzu raised his hands defensively. "She was crazy! Didn't you see that she was about that kill you? If I hadn't followed you out, who knows what would have happened."

"I'll tell you what would have happened," Katara snapped. Anger and frustration and despair were making her light-headed, but she was going to give Zuzu the tongue-lashing he deserved, if nothing. "Aunt Hama would have trained with me, and then we would have gone home, and I could have actually had a life instead of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with you! Why did you even bring me? I didn't want to come! I—" She choked off. The tears made speaking too difficult.

Zuzu shifted his weight on his feet awkwardly, and tugged something out of his sleeve. It was a handkerchief—a clean one, too, made of fine cloth. "Here," he muttered.

Katara took it and blew her nose. It only made her feel worse, to accept something from a firebender, and one who had hurt Aunt Hama at that. She cried harder.

Zuzu now seemed highly discomforted by her actions. He moved in a little closer and seemed to be struggling with something. Then he touched her shoulder lightly. "Um, sorry, I guess. I didn't know you liked that her so much."

Zuzu was really a clueless idiot, Katara thought as she wiped her tears away. Clueless, but sweet. And it was nice to have someone other than Aunt Hama care about her. Maybe that, and leaving Aunt Hama, was what made Katara a little bolder than usual.

Zuzu went rigid when she began crying on his shoulder, but he didn't shove her off and call her a crybaby like Sokka had that one time. Instead, he hesitatingly patted her back, and just stood there.

That was sweet too.


	11. The Blue Spirit

**Title: **Frozen Fire: Waterbender

**Author: **Qwerky Qity

**Rating: **T

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 11: The Blue Spirit<strong>

"Colonel Shinu, you cannot let the talent of the Yuyan Archers go to waste by using them here in the homeland as mere guards!"

Taking a deep drink of tea, Shinu wondered who exactly was responsible for the Zhao's promotion. Perhaps it had been part of some backroom deal in the Capitol; that was hopefully the explanation, because the thought that Zhao had been promoted for any actual ability was too ludicrous to comprehend.

Zhao was waxing on about how much he needed Shinu's archers to complete his pet project. "…search for the Avatar. The Yuyan's precision is legendary. To be able to pin a dragonfly-moth to a tree without killing it—think about how effective they would be!"

Yes, the search for the Avatar. Shinu had never received any orders—and such orders could only originate from a General or someone of equal stature—to transfer the Yuyan Archers under someone else's command, especially that of an incompetent like Zhao. And the Yuyan were some of the most valuable forces the Fire Nation had and were often required for tasks that could not be solved with brute force. Surely they would be of more use here than chasing the shadowy traces of a rumored Avatar.

"…please reconsider, Colonel," Zhao concluded.

"Absolutely not," Shinu said immediately. "The Yuyan are needed for real fighting here. Besides, there is no real evidence of the Avatar resurfacing." And even if there were, the Firelord would be the one to give orders, not you, you miserable rat-fox.

Zhao ground his teeth. "Colonel—"

He was cut off by the loud screech of a messenger hawk. Shinu glanced up, recognizing with a jolt that the seal on the envelope belonged to the Minister of Intelligence, Lord Ryuo. The bird flew on the table next to Shinu, and nudged him. There was an expectant, cruel with its beady eyes.

Shinu felt a trickle of sweat run down his forehead. Minister Ryuo was not known to be particularly diligent about writing to lowly Colonels, not under normal circumstances. Shinu had heard stories of how Ryuo had been Firelord Azulon's right hand since before the Firelord had even been Crown Prince, and those stories included whispers about how the last time the Minister of Intelligence had personally written military officers was during the coup that deposed the then-Crown Prince Azuo. Those officers had, of course, conveniently died soon after.

But if he did not read the message…Ryuo was the Minister of Intelligence, one of the most powerful men in the land. If Shinu ignored whatever orders were in the scroll, Ryuo could easily lay charges of insubordination on him, and insubordination was punishable by death in the military.

Swallowing hard, Shinu glared at Zhao, who was smirking openly, and reached for the message. It took him several tries to untie it, his hands were shaking so badly. Unfurling the scroll, Shinu was so surprised he barely felt his jaw drop.

For several long moments, he simply stood there, staring to make sure that he had not misread the writing. The first explanation that entered his mind was forgery. Zhao certainly looked smug enough. But even Zhao, even someone as arrogant and foolish as Zhao, wouldn't dare fake Ryuo's personal seal. That was tantamount to suicide; only pretending to be the Firelord himself could be more disastrous if it was found out. Or had Zhao blackmailed Ryuo? Surely not. The Minister of Intelligence had not reached his position by allowing others to find intelligence on him.

But the _why_s of the message were hardly as important as the _what_. If this was what Lord Ryuo wanted, then this is what Shinu would deliver.

"Commander Zhao," Shinu found himself saying, "the Yuyan Archers are yours."

* * *

><p>Azula slowly opened her eyes. She was in a proper bed, which was surprising in of itself, because she couldn't remember the last time she had slept properly in a bed. A real bed. Her eyes widened, and she immediately pushed herself up into a sitting position, in spite of the dull ache in her midsection. Suppressing a grunt of pain, she gingerling touched the area. It had been bandaged, and someone had changed her into new, thankfully dry clothes.<p>

Shifting around so that her legs were dangling over the the edge of the bed, Azula realized with a jolt that the new clothes fit her perfectly, almost as if they had been tailored especially for her. It was suspicious, but at least whoever owned this place most likely wasn't malevolent. As far as she could tell, the room was not a prison cell, being of wood instead of metal. The window was latched, but badly so, and could easily be used as an escape route.

There was a creaking noise, and Azula's attention riveted to the door, which opened a second later, revealing a short girl with a monstrosity of a hairdo—Agni, were those horns growing out of her head?—carrying a tray with a half-filled jug and smiling widely.

Before the girl could so much as blink, Azula had leapt forward, ignoring the pain that stabbed at her abdominal muscles, one hand slamming the girl's neck to the wall, the other bending water out of the jug.

The girl opened her mouth—

"If you scream," Azula said softly, freezing the water into a sharp ice dagger, "I afraid I will have to cut out your tongue."

She was pleased to see the girl swallow visibly. "Now tell me, where am I?"

"Mmboo-vige."

Azula drew the ice dagger dangerously close to the girl's neck. "I didn't hear that."

She yelped. "M-Makapu Village."

Azula frowned. "How did I get here?"

"You were left at the back door of my house," another voice said. "Now, if you would please let Meng go, I would be glad to answer your questions."

Glancing at the doorway, Azula saw that the speaker was an old woman in yellow robes. Her hair was grey and slowly transitioning to white, but her eyes were clear and focused. And in spite of the fact that the Meng—her granddaughter?—was clearly being threatened, the old woman was not the least perturbed.

Weighing her options, Azula decided that the old woman was likelier to tell her what she wanted to know. A frightened child was near useless, after all. She released her hold on Meng's neck. The girl squeaked again in relief, and scampered down the stairs.

"Thank you." The old woman smiled, but her eyes remained cool. "I am Aunt Wu, the fortuneteller of Makapu Village. Now, since we are both operating under very tight schedules, I will skip the usual speech. Your friends will be in danger, and they need you to rescue them."

"My friends _will be_ in danger," Azula echoed. Future tense. "Do you think I would believe you?"

"No," Aunt Wu sighed. "But I do speak the truth." She lowered her voice. "The Avatar must be protected at all costs."

Azula narrowed her eyes at the fortuneteller. Aunt Wu's face showed nothing, but Azula's gaze caught on the heavy pendant the self-proclaimed fortuneteller wore. Hung on a long brown string, tt was a piece of jade, colored light green, but that wasn't what was surprising. It was the pattern on the jade pendant that triggered a memory.

_A white lotus._

Azula felt her body tense instinctively in spite of the pain. It suddenly made a lot more sense. "And how do you expect me to save him?"

"Oh, you mean your injuries? They are only as painful as you allow them to be." Aunt Wu said with a dismissive wave of your hand. "For a girl of your fortitude and willpower, I daresay would you be able to hold yourself together even if you were burning alive."

Azula narrowed her eyes. "You claim to be a fortuneteller. Can you tell me where they are?"

Aunt Wu laughed, but there was no joy in it. "I can, though I hardly saw _that_ in tea leaves." She pulled two things form her large sleeves: a rolled up parchment revealed to be a map, and a package wrapped in grey rags. "Your friends were originally here"—she pointed at a village on the map that Azula recognized—"but they were taken by guards elsewhere. To Garsai."

"I see." Azula glanced down at the map again. The dot that represented Makapu Village was all the way down the river. "This will take time. And Garsai is well-guarded."

Garsai was the city in the western part of the Earth Kingdom along the Donghuai River, notable for being an important trade center with strong earthen walls, and for being the site of Azulon's first major victory as Crown Prince. When the Fire Nation soldiers had first arrived, it had the supplies to hold out a siege for ten months, but the Fire Nation couldn't afford to wait over a year. Earth Kingdom forces had already been on their way. Azulon had conquered it in ten days.

The Firelord would not likely forget that and leave the place unguarded. For a moment, Azula considered the option of leaving Aang to his fate. But that was impossible. Their destinies, as Gran-Gran had said, were intertwined. To forsake him would be to forsake her own future.

Looking back up at Aunt Wu, Azula was irritated to see a knowing express on the old woman's face, as if she knew exactly what Azula was thinking. "What?"

"The others would not like this," Aunt Wu said slowly, "but they are not here." She pushed back the rags off the small package she held, revealing an indigo mask with silver accents. Its mouth was opened in a permanent leer, as if it was laughing. "I think this will be of use to you during your journey. You would be less recognizable."

Ignoring the stab of vanity that protested against the old woman's words, Azula took the mask. It fit almost perfectly along the planes of her face, and once she tied the straps, she was pleased to notice that the mask did not slip.

"Travel down the river," Aunt Wu continued as she moved out of the doorway, allowing Azula to slip past her. "You should be able to move quickly, and Makapu will not provide any barriers, as the Fire Nation have not yet reached us. I have told the townspeople to remain at home at this hour; they should not see you as you go out. Time is on our side, but not for long." She smiled sadly. "The Avatar does not have the fortune to choose his own friends. You do. Do not waste that opportunity."

_She's a fraud_, Azula told herself as she hurried down the stairs, ignoring the jolt of surprise she felt at Aunt Wu's words. _She doesn't know anything. She's a _fraud_._

* * *

><p>Safely concealed beneath the heavy hood of his cloak, Zuko examined the deep blue mask. It was well-made, with silvery metal accenting the edges of the eye-holes and lips. Not real silver, but all the same, the mask represented craftsmanship that he hadn't expected from a little village.<p>

"How much for this?"

The shopkeeper didn't even look up from the accounting. "Forty silver."

Zuko took his money pouch, about to count the coins, when he heard Katara make an outraged noise next to him and grabbed the pouch from him. "Forty silver? That's robbery!"

"Well, it's forty!" The shopkeeper slammed his abacus onto the counter. "We don't haggle here. Take it or leave it."

Katara was about to speak up, when Zuko nudged her in the ribs. "Let's go," he muttered, looking uneasily at the rest of the shop's patrons. A few were already giving them scathing looks, making Zuko suspect that they had interpreted Katara's nationality correctly.

"What part of not make a scene don't you understand?" he hissed as he dragged her out of the shop. "We can't afford to be noticed."

She wrenched her arm out of his grip. "Don't touch me. If you're so upset, then why don't you let me go back?"

Zuko sighed and resisted the urge to shake her. He had thought that she would have been glad to leave the old witch, but Katara had kept bringing her up at every opportunity. Didn't she know that the waterbending witch was crazy? Honestly, he was beginning to suspect that something was wrong with Katara too, what with the way she actually wanted to go back there.

"Listen, that woman you were living with is insane, alright? She would kill you if you went back—that is, supposing that you actually made it back, with the way the streets are crawling with soldiers and thieves."

"I can take care of myself!"

"Keep your voice down!" Zuko glanced behind them, but no one was paying attention to their conversation. "I'm not saying that you can't, but you're—" he dropped his voice down to barely a whisper—"a waterbender. So unless you have some amazing talent with fighting hand-to-hand, there's no way you can defend yourself."

Katara huffed. "I think I'll take my chances. Surely I can't be worse than someone called _Zuzu_."

Of all the stupidly, idiotic names he could have come up with... "I'm not saying that you can't protect yourself. It's just that you can't fight. I mean, not that you _can't_ fight, but if you fight, they'll find out that you're a—" he lowered his voice again—"waterbender, they won't hesitate to throw you in prison. And do you know what they to—"

"Make way, make way! Move aside!"

Zuko found himself being pushed back by the wave of people as the rumblings of komodo-rhinos moving down the road was heard. Wondering who would be so ostentatious as to ride down the street of a backwoods town with such pomp, Zuko looked around in the crowd for Katara.

She had disappeared.

He cursed. Only a second of misdirected attention, and she was gone. He should have realized that the waterbender was going to slip off as soon as she could, though for the life of him he couldn't figure out why he was bothering with her. It would certainly remove the burden of having to drag along an unwilling bender who would be making a lot of trouble.

But then again, she did save his life, Zuko grudgingly allowed. So he was obligated by honor to prevent her from doing something foolish—like going back to that old water witch who was likely as not going to kill her for helping Zuko.

"Katara?" he shouted. "Come back here!"

It was no use. The buzz of the crowd was too loud. Trying to make his way past the throngs of people, Zuko looked around wildly, shouting her name, but the bustle of the market had only gotten worse with the arrival of whichever idiot was riding the komodo-rhinos.

Zuko didn't even notice that his hood had fallen down, or that he was walking against the flow of people, toward the center of the road, until he felt himself being lifted off the ground by the collar of his shirt.

"Who dares—" Zuko froze, staring at the face of the last person in the world he wanted to see here.

"Prince Zuko," Zhao smirked. "How very nice of you to come back from the dead."

* * *

><p>"Well, that was a great idea," Sokka deadpanned. The bruise on his head throbbed angrily as he paced their small, windowless cell, hands folded behind his back. "I hope that this is part of your plan, Aang."<p>

Aang blinked. "But it isn't."

Sokka threw up his hands. Normally, this would have been an effective show of his exasperation, but the prisoner uniform ruined the effect. "I give up. Do you want to try, Suki? _I'm_ obviously not getting through."

Suki shot a glare at Sokka before turning to Aang. "Aang," she said gently, "Sokka was being sarcastic. He's just a little upset—"

"A little upset?! He got us thrown in jail!"

"By accident, Sokka! Aang was just trying to get the Gan Jins and the Zhangs to make peace. It's not his fault that the guards thought we were trying to incite a mob." Suki pursed her lips. "Besides, I remember _someone_ attacking the head guard—which coincidentally made him mad enough to lock us in here."

Sokka had the grace to look sheepish at the reminder. "Hey, it wasn't my fault, okay? I just—"

"—slapped him on the head with your boomerang and yelled at everyone to attack the enemy?"

"Look on the bright side, guys," Aang suggested. "It was at least fun while it lasted. Did you see when I hit that big Zhang lady with a fruit pie?"

"Didn't she then knock you out with the meat cleaver?"

Aang wilted into his extra-large prisoner shirt. "Yeah."

Suki poked Sokka's arm. "Don't say things like that!"

Sokka scowled. "You don't need to mother him all the time, Suki. He's hardly helpless—for spirit's sake, he's the Avatar!"

"Sokka, shut up!" Suki hissed, but it was too late.

The guard in the open doorway blinked. "Who's the Avatar?"

"No one," Suki said quickly, hoping that she sounded convincing. The heavyset guard didn't look too bright. "The last Avatar's dead—died a century ago."

"I dunno," the guard said as he scratched his chin. "Heard some rumors lately about an airbending kid…you looka to be the right age. Can you airbend?"

"Of course not," Aang laughed nervously, patting his bangs. "I mean, who can airbend except the Avatar? Who's dead," he added quickly. "Dead as a rock. Deader. Unless he can come back 'cause he's the Avatar—which is impossible. Completely impossible. So I can't be the Avatar."

The guard looked like he believed them, and for a moment, Suki thanked the spirits that he was so slow on the uptake. Any half-wit would have easily seen through Aang's lies.

"What's going on in here?" a gruff voice asked. A second guard walked in, and his grey sideburns and the bandage on his head made his identity very clear—the head guard Sokka had whacked on the head.

"Lieutenant Jee," the guard saluted. "We were just talking about if that little kid over there could be the Avatar."

Suki swallowed. She could hear her blood thudding in her ears. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sokka tense up, and willed him silently to not give Aang away.

"Hi-yah!"

Her eyes widened disbelievingly as she watched Sokka leap forward with a battle cry—

-only for the Fire Nation man to grab him by the neck and slam him on the nearest wall. Sokka slid down, dazed.

"Guards!" Jee called. His eyes were harsh as they fixed on Aang. "Take him down."

* * *

><p>Katara winced as the ugly man with sideburns dragged Zuzu away, trying to ignore the way her insides were squirming with guilt.<p>

It was hardly her fault that he was so stupid, she consoled herself. He had just been lecturing her about not drawing attention, and now he was doing it himself. Besides, who knew that Sideburns would just grab Zuzu and order him to be taken away?

The sky was clear today, and as always, the sun shone brightly. She wiped a bead of sweat off her forehead. That thought had only made her feel guiltier. Maybe Sideburns would hurt Zuzu. They clearly knew each other, if Sideburns had just picked him out of a crowd like that. Maybe Sideburns had even been the one responsible for Zuzu's injuries. And then, it would be almost Katara's fault that Zuzu got hurt.

She tried to push the thought away. It wasn't as if she owed him—if anything, he owed her, for saving him. She had saved his life, and then he had run into Sideburns, and it wasn't _her_ fault that Sideburns took him away. Not at all.

_Wasn't it? _a stern voice asked in her head. _If you are to let him die now, you might as well have never saved him to begin with. There is not half-way, Katara._

And suddenly, she wasn't in the Fire Nation anymore, but a child of three back with her Tribe, and her father was holding a scrap of leather, partially sewn together with untidy stitches into the rough shape of a doll.

_"What is this, Katara?" Hakoda asked as he squatted down to her level so that she couldn't hide her face. He did not seem angry, like he had when she pushed Sokka under the ice for being mean, but his eyes were unyieldingly hard._

_Young Katara hung her head. Instinctively, she knew that this time, tears and cleverness would do her no good. "Sorry, Daddy."_

_"And what are you sorry for?"_

_Katara thought. "For ruining my dolly?"_

_"No, Katara. The dolly isn't ruined, see? But it isn't completed, either, is it? Why don't you finish it?"_

_"But it's ugly!" Katara exclaimed. "I don't like it, and Gran-Gran said she'd make me a better one!"_

_Hakoda pointed to the distance, where several wooden boats were docked. "Do you see those canoes there?"_

_Katara nodded._

_"The other Tribesmen and I, we assembled every one of them ourselves. Every single one. You remember watching me make mine, don't you, Katara?"_

_Katara nodded again._

_"And what do you think would have happened if I left it unfinished because I didn't like it anymore?" Hakoda asked rhetorically. "I would not have been able to use it to fish and to travel. The other Tribesmen would think that I am lazy, or that I give up then they would not have made me their chief." He pressed the ragged doll into her hands. "I am not angry because of the doll, Katara, but because you acted in a way that is irresponsible. If you are to do something, either do it well, or don't begin."_

_"But it's only an ugly dolly," Katara protested. "I don't wanna finish it!"_

_ "What if you were on a boat, and someone fell out? Would you try to help them back in, only to then decide that it is too difficult, and leave them in the water?"_

_"Of course not! That would be bad. Gran-Gran said you could die if you stayed too long in cold water!"_

_"This is the same idea. We have to finish what we started, understand?" Hakoda smiled when she nodded. "Good girl."_

Katara sighed, and glanced down. The silver coins in her hands reflected the glints of sunlight. They drew her gaze back up, across the street, directly to the bright blue mask Zuzu had been considered.

"I'm crazy," she muttered to herself, earning a few more strange looks. "Zuzu, you are _so_ going to owe me for this."

* * *

><p>High above the crowded city, unseen by the multitudes in it, a translucent man sat atop the radiant, see-through scales of a dragon. His eyes, if anyone could have seen them, would have been fixed on the single waterbender in the city's midst.<p>

The spirit dragon gave a low rumble as it felt its scale heat up beneath the sun, flapping its wings in appreciately. The man on his back smiled too, and turned his head to look directly at the sun. "Is this your idea, Great Father?"

The air grew warmer. _They are good together, are they not, Roku?_

Roku chuckled. "I thought that spirits were not allowed to interfere directly in the lives of mortals."

_Mortals, no. But you are all my children, and no father can sit and watch his children suffer without acting._

Fang snorted, and Roku patted his head. "Just as he can't sit back and let them find their own partners in life?

_Hardly that, Roku_. The sun's voice was mildly amused. _They will teach each other to forgive with forgetting past wrongs, to love without limit, to hate without hurting themselves. They will need each other, I think. _His voice turned sadder. _I have taken too much from them both. Perhaps, together, they can still salvage something out of the wreck of their lives._

"I don't understand." Roku frowned. "You keep saying that you have wronged them, Great Father, but I do not see how. Your children are numerous and not all of them still honor your wisdom as they should. You can't be held accountable for those actions."

_But I can be held for my own_, the sun countered. _I took from them the lives they should have led and the families that they should have had. If time could flow a second time through its course, I may choose differently. _He sighed, an enormous rippling of heat shuddering through the air. _I have failed in my duty to my children._

"I remember I once heard a story in my youth, about the formation of the home islands," Roku said slowly. "My tutor once told me that many years ago, a Fire man killed a Water man over a minor dispute, and the Water spirits were angered so that they send a great flood to cover the lands of the Fire people, who fled to the mountaintops to save themselves. They prayed night and day to you, and to create a new home for your children, you cut your own flesh open and let your own blood run dry across the waters." He paused. "Is that not love, Father?"

_And if I had chosen for some of my children to bleed so that other may live? Would you believe me a father still? _The sun shrank behind the clouds, and beneath Roku, Fang snorted plumes of transparent smoke. _A father should love his children, equally, always._

Roku smiled sadly. "Not always, Father."

* * *

><p>Lu Ten was sprawled across the chair in his father's private rooms. It was a most undignified position for a prince to be in, but for once, father and son were alone and they could afford to let royal protocol be temporarily abandoned.<p>

"Father…"

"Yes?" Iroh didn't bother looking up from the records. The logistics department had gotten them into a terrible mess, but that was what happened. Every now and then a greedy bureaucrat thought it a good idea to steal from the Royal Treasury and leave a tangle of paperwork to cover his tracks.

"Is Ozai really here? In the capitol?"

"He is. I believe that Lord Ryuo is currently in charge of watching him."

Lu Ten leaned forward, face eager. "So we will be rid of him soon?"

"Do not treat that subject so cavalierly," Iroh warned, turning the page of the logbook. He had spent years gaining the loyalty of the Royal Guards, but who knew when a man's loyalty shifted? A little gold could go far in the right hands, and if not gold, then threats. "After all, he is your uncle."

Lu Ten scowled slightly at Iroh's tone. His face quickly brightened, though. "But once he is gone, we'll be safe, won't we, Father? There will be no one to challenge your claim to the throne."

Iroh paused. "Of course."

A small prickle of unease stabbed at him as he thought of Zuko, the boy he had considered a second son for so many years. But the incident on Crescent Island…even if Zhao had been lying, he couldn't afford to take chances. Not when his own life and, more importantly, Lu Ten's may have hung in the balance. After all, a brother's son was not one's own. That was why he had subtly persuaded Azulon to order Zuko's execution. The next morning, when the guards had reported that his nephew had committed suicide in the cell, Iroh had insisted on seeing the corpse. Still, even after verifying it, he couldn't help but feel that somehow, Zuko was still alive, still out there, waiting to take revenge.

_Perhaps this was what guilt feels like_, he thought.

"Father? Are you listening?"

"I'm afraid I zoned out for a moment there." Iroh put on his widesst smile. "What was it you were saying?"

"I was asking," Lu Ten said impatiently, "if I could stop pretending now."

Iroh slowly closed the logbook. "Lu Ten, I know that you do not like how other perceive you, but it is important that you let them underestimate you. It will only be a little while more."

"That's what you always say!" Lu Ten shouted. The candles in the room flickered three feet high, sputtering and hissing. "I'm sick of it, Father! I'm sick of chasing after filthy serving wenches without the sense of a spider-mouse and laughing with noblewomen just because their fathers push them at me—and having to endure the entire court tittering and gossiping about who will be next. Why do I have to keep up this façade, Father? Everyone who's a danger to us is already gone. I even got Mai to finally leave."

Iroh frowned. "You should not lump your wife with your enemies, son. The day might come that you need her help. And as for our enemies being gone, Lord Ryuo is speaking with your lord grandfather at this very minute."

"So? Lord Ryuo's a good guy. You're friends with him."

"Lord Ryuo," Iroh said slowly, "will only help us so long as our interests run concurrent. So far, they have, but this might not be the case in the future. In times like this, you can only trust your family."

Lu Ten snorted loudly, and Iroh decided to change the topic. "I do wish that you would take my advice seriously, Lu Ten." A small twinkle entered his eye. "I was hoping to have grandsons sooner rather than later."

"Father!" Lu Ten groaned. "Can't we talk about something else?"

"More importantly," Iroh contined on, "a son would mean that you two are permanently bound together."

Lu Ten threw up his arms into the air. "Aren't we already? We're married, for Agni's sake!"

"A wife may have interests that are contrary to her husband's." The memory of his brother's turbulent marriage with Ursa made Iroh feel another twinge of guilt. "But no mother would ever work against her own son. Lu Ten, you need—"

"I _know_, Father." Lu Ten waved his hand dismissively. "I'll try harder, alright? Now, can we talk about something else?"

* * *

><p>Mai reached out a hand to test the temperature of the water. Warm, but not scalding. Perfect. Ty Lee had been the one to want to visit the sauna, but she had decided halfway there that she would rather see the marketplace, so Mai was left alone with their "reservation." It was actually better than she had expected. The waters were naturally fed by a nearby spring, and paper panels were put up divide the baths and provide a measure of privacy. Not that they were needed. Mai's "reservation" meant that no one would be here to disturb her.<p>

Luxuries like this couldn't be found in the muddy, swampy areas the Avatar liked to find—which was just as well that the Avatar had gone off the radar. She supposed that she hardly needed to be stuck on the Avatar's trail; a simple letter to the Firelord, or to Prince Iroh or even her Lord Uncle could easily allow a removal of the Firelord's orders.

But that would mean that she would have to return to the palace. To her mockery of a marriage. Idly, Mai wondered what Lu Ten was doing in her absence. Probably the same as what he did when she was there. For a time before their marriage, she had hoped that the cousin Zuko had always looked up to would prove to be a good and honourable husband, but there was too much between them to have so much as a cordial relationship. Zuko's shadow always haunted her, and, as for Lu Ten…well, she wasn't sure what Lu Ten wanted, except that it wasn't her.

Mai was preparing to loose undress when she heard a soft whistling sound from her right.

Instinctively, she dropped down and rolled left from where she had been standing, fingers curling around three sharp stilettos. She glanced at the spot her head had been at. There was now a large rip in the paper behind it.

Slowing backing away from the spot, Mai looked around cautiously. There was at least one other person in there—likely more, if these people knew who they were trying to assassinate. If they were using metal weapons, then they likely weren't firebenders, or, at least, weren't willing to firebend in this area. Part of her considered calling for help, but it would only allow her attackers to pinpoint her position, and besides, maybe they had already killed all of the soldiers on guard.

For the first time, Mai began to regret coming to a place with so many large, obscuring panels hanging around. Honestly, she might as well have blindfolded herself.

There was a sudden movement on her right, and a rough hand grabbed at her wrist. Mai immediately rotated her wrist so that the blade of her dagger dug into her attacker's forearm; she felt something drip onto on her fingers and the grip weakened. Instead of moving away, she grabbed onto the shoulder of the attacker, using it to flip herself over him, all the while pushing him forward. Now, to get rid of him. He was big and bulky, and further hand-to-hand would likely turn out bad for her. Her foot kicked the back of his right leg, and he fell down on his knees. Driving her advantage, Mai was about to send a stiletto through his neck and end this when someone pulled on her foot, tugging her down.

Falling on her stomach, Mai rolled over, ignoring the sharp pain as her ankle twisted in the second attacker's grasp, and sent five shurikens at his neck with a flick of her wrist; two of them made contact with the major veins there, and he fell to the ground gasping. Unfortuantely, her lapse in attention toward the first attacker had allowed him to get back on his feet, and Mai barely missed the sharp swings of his sword. Stumbling away, her injured ankle slowing her movement, she was about to send a shuriken at him when she heard the sound of a bow being pulled behind her.

Ducking, Mai reached out and shoved the nearest panel at the first attacker. He slashed at it with his sword, cutting it to shreds, but his preoccupation with the panel allowed the three arrows that flew within an inch of Mai's head to pierce into his chest. He grunted and dropped to the ground, body thudding against stone floor of the sauna.

Drawing another three stilettos into her hand, Mai glanced around the room, quieting her breathing, slowly making her way in the direction of the exit. The one who had sent the arrows was still in the room, and there might be others.

She took a step backward, and suddenly lost her balance. Grabbing a nearby cloth to stop from falling over and silently cursing her stupidity, Mai heard again the soft whistling of the arrows. She threw her stilettos in the direction of the sound, stumbling backwards hurriedly.

One of the arrows made it past her stilettos and nicked her in the arm, leaving a tear in her sleeve. A sharp pain lancing through the same area informed Mai that the arrow had cut across her flesh. But there was no time to think about that, as more arrows flew throught the cloths, leaving dozens of small punctures. Forced on the defensive, Mai backed away as quickly as her injured ankle would allow.

The exit was very near now. Once she got out—

A heavy hand fell on her shoulder, and before Mai could react, pushed her down. She felt a sharp pain in her lower back as she made contact with the floor. Stars burst across her line of the vision, and Mai heard the attacker begin walking toward her. She reached for her dagger, but the man's foot came down on her hand with a nasty cracking sound. Mai closed her eyes, but what happened next surprised her. The attacker suddenly collapsed.

"Mai!" Ty Lee scrambled forward, pulling Mai up. Piandao followed behind, sword drawn. "Are you okay? They didn't hurt you too badly, did they?"

Mai was about to respond when she felt something wet trickle down her leg. She froze, swaying.

Piandao noticed first, his face darkening. "Fetch a physician," he shouted at the panicking soldiers. "Can't you see that Her Highness is injured? Hurry!"

"Mai doesn't look too bad…" Ty Lee trailed off as Mai shuddered, losing her footing. Her eyes went wide. "Oh, Mai, no…"

* * *

><p>It was almost sunset when Azula first laid eyes upon the admittedly imposing gates of Garsai.<p>

And, she thought irritably, the long line of komodo rhino-led carts with, what seemed to be, materials for the war effort. Surrounding the line at sporadic intervals were dozens of soldiers, on foot or on the backs of ostrich horses. The gates, at least, were open wide, but that was useless if she couldn't go through them without being seen by a entire platoon of incompetents.

"Oy!" The soldier nearest to her shouted. His cheeks were dirty with stubble and dust from the ground, and from his accent, of the rougher type, one of the many peasants conscripted into the army. "'sit true that the Avatar's been found here?"

Azula stilled.

"' Course!" the guard at the gate called out. "I was there myself when they shaved his head an' saw those airbender tattoos of his and Jee had 'im removed to high security. Lemme tell you, they're…"

She had heard enough. Sliding down silently from the tree branches into the shield of bushes, Azula felt a rush of vertigo overwhelm her, and shook her head angrily as she tugged the black hood farther over her head. Fraud or not, Azula thought grimly, Aunt Wu was right when she said that one could overpower anything if one had enough determination.

But that didn't erase the problem of the extra people at the gate.

Switching her eyes back onto the unshaved soldier, his poor posture and she imagined sneaking behind him, knocking him off the mount, lashing out with a water whip at the nearest soldier, vaulting across the area toward the gate…

…and running into fresh troops, reinforcements sent from directly from the fort. Azula frowned. One against ten was bad enough in her current situation; if she revealed herself, it could very well become one against a hundred. She couldn't afford that, not here, not now.

On the other hand, the komodo rhinos, while hardly intelligent, would suffice for a distraction. If only she could trigger a stampede, or even a panic, among the beasts, perhaps that could draw enough attention away from the gates for her to slip in.

"Hurry up, you!" The unshaved soldier shouted, and he whipped the rhino's flank as his companions laughed. The beast, covered by a layers of armor and a thick hide, wasn't hurt, though it did kick in the direction of its attacker, causing its cart to teeter dangerously.

"Easy there!" Another man, his armor marking him as a captain, rode up to the unshaved soldier. "Pay attention to what you're doing, grunt. That rhino's carrying blasting jelly, and if that blows up, it's all on you."

The unshaved soldier grumbled, but for the first time that day, it seemed that the spirits were on Azula's side. Blasting jelly was perfect. Now, if only she could make a fire, even the smallest of sparks, and the much-needed distraction would be underway. Fire was what she needed, not water. The old resentment rose again in her, and she had to force it down.

_Focus_, she told herself. Unconsciously, her left hand began to curl into a fist, and she could hear the faint gurgle of the water as it rose from the creekbed to swirl around her. _If everything goes right, you won't need to worry about your birthright anymore. But you need to get the Avatar out, and you can't give up because you can't firebend. There has to be another way…_

The rhino pulling the blasting jelly suddenly stopped, snorting. Its head swiveled in Azula's direction, as if it could sense her presence. Perhaps it could; animals had a nasty way of being perceptive like that. Azula glared back at it, willing the animal to back off, but instead of responding properly to the threat, it snorted again and moved a little closer.

She tensed. The water sloshed around her quietly, agitated. Subconsciously, her fingers curled, cooling the water down until it was almost frozen.

"Come back here!" The unshaved soldier made a crude fire whip and bent it toward the rhino, though he held it back from actually burning the beast. Nevertheless, spooked at the sight, the beast pounded up dust clouds in its haste to avoid the flame.

This was her chance. Quickly, Azula spread her arms, spreading the frozen ice into a compact sheet before her, the edges as sharp as a knife's blade and pointed like an arrow. With a flick of her wrist, the ice-blade flung itself at the rhino's front leg with dizzying speed. Her will kept the ice from shattering upon impact with the armor, and she heard the beast's loud bellow as the blade embedded itself firmly in its leg. Temporarily hindered by the pain, the beast was unable to avoid the soldier's fire whip. Sparks fluttered dangerously near the blasting jelly, hissing. Azula could hear them even from where she stood.

For a moment, no one seemed to notice the imminent disaster.

BOOM!

The explosion sent the rhino flying in one direction, legs flailing uselessly in the air as it bellowed, and the soldier, and the soldier's ostrich horse flying into the other. The komodo rhino landed atop a cluster of soldiers who were not quite bright enough to move away. There was a loud creak, as another komodo rhino, taking advantage of the chaos, broke away from its cart; it bounded forward wildly, while the cart rolled back. It seemed that whatever was in the cart was quite heavy, because it slammed into another komodo rhino with such force that Azula could hear the snapping of the bones even from where she stood. Already, the other soldiers and guards were moving toward the scene, and away from their posts.

Touching the blue mask to make sure it was still on tight, Azula slipped past the roaring rhinos and confused soldiers, and into the gates of Garsai.

* * *

><p>The Firelord sat alone on the throne that belonged to his family since the dawn of the time, without the small army of servants and guards who normally followed him around. That was queer. Gone too, was the wall of flames. Ryuo smiled at this, secretly. Though his wits had not deserted him as his father's had when Sozin passed his centurial mark, Azulon was no longer the powerful firebender he had been in his youth. It was a good sign.<p>

Ryuo lowered himself on his knees, touching his forehead to the floor. He recited the familiar words of greeting in the Firelord's presence. "I am honored to be here before you, O Most Gracious and Royal Majesty."

"Lord Ryuo," Azulon said. His voice was raspy. Too many years shouting orders on the battlefield, perhaps. "You may rise."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Ryuo stood up from his kneeling position, his knees groaning with pain. Logic would say that they would be used to this after spending most of a lifetime kneeling in front the Firelord, but his foolish body, as always, refused to follow logic. Still, it was a relief to be able to sit in the Firelord's presence. Not everyone had this honour, after all. It was a mark of favor. That was good as well.

"He did not give you too much trouble, I hope," Azulon said. The Firelord didn't need to specify who the _he_ was. "He was always a troublesome boy as a child."

"No more than I expected, Your Majesty."

"Good. Very good. Now, my reason for calling you here today. I want him gone—permanently."

Ryuo blinked. More than once, he had wondered how the Firelord could be so hard-hearted to his own son. Favoritism wasn't unheard of, especially in the royal family, but to actively seek Ozai's death…there had to be something more in their relationship. He quashed his curiosity down before the question could arise to his lips. He was the Minister of Intelligence; he knew all that was worth knowing about the military and the court and all the members within those two institutions; he had long learned that ignorance was the most dangerous quality to have in the high echelons of Fire Nation nobility. But this was not the time to ask. The reasons for the Firelord's dislike were hardly as important as the strange request he had made.

It had been three hundreds years since a Firelord had last openly executed a member of the royal family. Mingku of the White Fire had been a fearsome warlord, in those days when each island had its king and its own military. He had crushed the Kings of Yamataikoku, a clan that had been as old and powerful as any, and wrestled away control over the entire eastern half the archipelago from families who had ruled them for generations, but died before he could see his vision completed. His second son Jeonying had inherited his mantle and his men, and eventually the other islands had surrendered one by one. Jeonying had become the first Firelord of a united Fire Nation, and his descendants, through the female line, still ruled today.

The reason for that was this. Jeonying's only son, Tzendai, lacked the charisma and presence of his father and grandfather; the only way he could best them was in the number of sons he had begotten. Dying young—though of poison or swords or natural causes no one knew—Tzendai created a succession crisis, much as his many times great-nephew Sozin had. His fourth son Liyun had eventually won due to the support of his mother's family. After sitting on the Dragon Throne, Liyun's first imperial order was the executions of his brothers. The nobility, frightened by the sudden appearance of a ruthless, kinslaying Firelord, deserted him in droves, instead supporting the claim of a cousin descended from Jeonying's eldest daughter.

After that unfortunate example, most Firelords had chosen to assassinate powerful opponents of royal blood rather than execute them in the open. Kinslaying was declared taboo, more or less, and while it was quietly practiced among the bloodthirty, power-grasping court nobles, it was not something to be spoken of. Ryuo was highly surprised that the Firelord would even consider it; the backlash could be terrible, especially considering the precarious political state of affairs the war had put them in.

"Oh, I don't intend to follow the example of my foolish ancestor, Lord Ryuo. Ozai is, in spite of everything, of the House of Amaterasu, the son of the reigning Firelord." Azulon smiled thinly, showing his yellowed teeth. It was not a kind smile; perhaps, this, too, was a good sign. "But princes are ambitious. Ex-princes even more so; they have nothing to lose, after all. And everything to gain…"

The silence that followed these words was almost palpable.

"Your Majesty," Ryuo finally murmured, his mind racing. "I am your most obedient servant."

* * *

><p>"Having fun, Your Highness?"<p>

Zuko gritted his teeth, refusing to dignify the smirking commander with an answer. It was just his luck to run into Zhao of all people. Had it been another soldier, they probably wouldn't have recognized him. But the spirits, it seemed, simply weren't on his side.

Zhao had always held Zuko in especial contempt, always trying to cozy up to Lu Ten. He had ordered his men to hogtie Zuko, and throw across the back of Zhao's ostrich horse like a misbehaving child, and had dragged him like that all the way to the prison. Once there, the soldiers had chained Zuko to the cold metal wall, binding his wrists far above his head so that he almost hung there.

Only then, with his enemy in chains and surrounded by a dozen soldiers—Yuyan Archers, to Zuko's surprise, if their tattooes were anything to go off of—Zhao had began to gloat.

"The Firelord will reward me greatly for finding you," Zhao said smugly. "Gold, titles, promotions…the Firelord is known to be generous with those who serve him well. And the Crown Prince will be thank me as well. He was like a father to you, I'm sur—urgh!"

Zuko spat into his face. He experienced a moment of satisfaction before Zhao's blow caught him on the cheek, slamming Zuko's head into the metal so hard his vision faltered. When the world cleared up, Zhao was once again standing him front of him. His face was clean.

"I do wonder," Zhao contined, quietly, "how you escaped. The Firelord, I remember, had been very particular, and _someone_ had to have died…" Zhao moved in, so that they were face to face. He was so close, Zuko could hear his every breath. There was a thumping sound, too, like someone had kicked the walls, but Zhao didn't react at all. "Your mother, perhaps?"

Zuko froze.

"Yes," Zhao said with a satisfied smirk, "we know all about that. The stupid woman walked into the line of fire, literally. You'll be glad to know, _Prince_ Zuko, that we still have her corpse, and—"

These words triggered something in Zuko, something deep and dark and angry. He lunged at Zhao, hands aflame. Zhao's eyes widened almost comically as he stumbled backwards, and it was only then that Zuko realized that the chains around his wrists had melted into lumps of steel, trailing after him, still bathed in an orange glow from the heat. He kicked with his right leg, sending Zhao, who had half-assumed a fighting stance, tumbling down, and he had swung his steel-enforced fist at Zhao's head. A louder thump sounded in the hallway, and a soft, sweet whistling through the air, but the blood roaring in Zuko's head drowned out all other noise.

Then Zuko felt a sudden, blinding pain his right arm right before it made contact with Zhao's temple. Looking up, he saw that his right wrist was hanging at an awkward angle. Broken. But the arrow, it was at his feet, how could it—

Zhao had taken advantage of Zuko's lapse to scramble away. Safely surrounded by Yuyan Archers once more, the coward sneered, though Zuko could see him trembling. "Kill him," Zhao said loudly. "The Firelord will just as well appreciate a corpse."

Twelve hands simultaneously nocked twelve arrows. Zuko heard a soft whistling, and then another joining it, and then another, and another—

—but none of them made impact. In that very moment, a figure, surrounded by a blinding blue light, had burst through the metal doors. It shouted "NO!" and suddenly Zuko was sent sprawling back. For the second time that day, his head made painful contact with the wall, but thankfully, not with the arrows of the Yuyan.

All twelve archers and Zhao had turned at the appearance of the stranger, a slight figure in…Zuko blinked. That was the blue mask he had seen earlier in the morning, in the shop, before he had argued with Katara. What was going on here?

The blue masked man didn't hesitated. The light around him, Zuko could now see, wasn't light at all, but some kind of half-frozen water, spread out like the tentacles of a jelly-octopus, stinging at the Yuyan. One large arm swung at the archer who had shot Zuko the first time; the archer twisted his body and leapt into the air, dodging the water-tentacle, but it only caught his less-vigilant comrade who had been standing behind him.

The time it took to knock down the second archer had given the first the chance to shoot, and Blue Mask hissed as he pulled out the arrow from his arm. The area glowed bright for a moment, but otherwise, Blue Mask didn't seem to notice the injury. The small cell was full now, of arrows and shouts and the smacking sound of water on flesh.

But no fire. Zhao was fighting, he wasn't in the mass of fighting…Zuko glanced around, and his gaze fixed near the exit. Blue Mask had shattered the door upon his entrance, leaving only jagged chunks of metal lying around. Zhao was trying to make his way out without being hurt by the arrows or tentacles.

"Stop!" Zuko screamed. Staggering up, he rushed forward, completely ignoring the fighting around him. The only thing that mattered was reaching Zhao. His right wrist throbbed painfully, sending bursts of pain withevery step, but his singleminded need to get Zhao overpowered out the pain. Bursts of flame flew around him like scattered sparrow-mice, reaching greedily in Zhao's direction. As if somehow sensing Zuko's approach, Zhao turned, his own arms awash with fire, and met his first blow head on. A huge blast of heat surrounded Zuko, knocking him on his back.

Zuko groaned. He tried to get up, and failed.

Sneering, Zhao raised his hand for the killing blow.

Zuko closed his eyes. _Mom_, he thought. _I'm coming to see you again._

Ursa's face swam into sight. She was smiling sadly, but her eyes were bright. She said, _Never give up without a fight_.

_Never give up without a fight_. With a roar, Zuko sprang up again. Zhao had braced himself for the attack, ready to push Zuko down once more, but this time, Zuko didn't aim for Zhao's head. He aimed for Zhao's feet.

With a well-aimed fire-kick, followed up by a fierce side-attack, Zuko forced Zhao back, step by step. Every inch of gained ground was a victory. Behind him, her heard the fight between Blue Mask and the archers, and the sound of water gurgling as it jerked the Yuyan around like puppets by their strings and swung them against the metal walls.

"You can't win this," Zhao scoffed, but there was a desperate note to his voice. "You're just a spoiled princeling. Motherless, too, how pitiful."

Ignoring the taunt, Zuko swung both his fists downward in a fire blast; the edges of the flames licked at Zhao's unprotected shins, and the commander went down on the floor for the second time that day. Zuko kicked him in the chest, and felt a jolt of pleasure at Zhao's grunt of pain. He raised his right hand in preparation for the final blow, and felt his shoulder spasm reflexively with the agony from his wrist.

He lowered that hand, and raised his other one. For a moment, he simply held the hand in the air, fingers trembling.

"Do it," Zhao goaded. His breathing was in labored pants, but he has pushed himself up onto his elbows. Zuko's foot kept him from going up any further. "Be a man. Kill me."

Zuko swung his hand down, flames dancing down his arm, howling for blood. He saw, harshly lit by the fire, the look of fear and surprise on Zhao's face, and for a moment, it almost made him wish that he had chosen differently.

But only for a moment.

Zhao crumpled, his head dropping down with a bang, a trickle of blood pooling on the floor. The smell of burned hair lingered in the air; the fire had scorched off almost of Zhao's left sideburns, and more than a little of his skin.

Blue Mask approached Zuko from his right side. He had finished with the Yuyan; they all lay, bound by ice or simply unconscious, on the floor. Zuko glanced at Blue Mask. Empty black eye-holes looked back at him. The blue lips were fastened in a permanent grin, but there was nothing malicious in it. Blue Mask gently reached out a hand, taking Zuko's injured wrist in his hand. Zuko felt the cold touch of frozen water on his skin, then something even colder and more penetrating into his marrow.

Instinctively, he jerked his hand back. To his astonishment, there was nothing but a faint numbness left. He hesitatingly moved his wrist; there was nothing wrong with it anymore.

"Katara?" he asked, incredulously.

"We should go. There'll be more troop coming any minute now," Katara said. She glanced at Zhao. "He's—"

"I don't think so." Zuko shrugged, swallowing the sting in his throat. "Why…why'd you save me? I thought you'd have gone back."

"I wanted to," Katara admitted. "But it wouldn't have been fair to leave you here. It _was_ partly my fault that Sideburns"—she glanced at Zhao again—"captured you."

Zuko snorted. "Sideburns?"

"I don't know his name," Katara said defensively. She stepped over Zhao's body. "Are you going with me or not?"

Zuko went. As they ran past the resounding metal hallways, the shouts of fresh troops following them, Zuko suddenly realized that he had forgotten something.

"Katara?"

"What?" She was huffing slightly. "If you have anything to say, you can—"

"I just wanted to thank you. For coming back to save me. So…thanks."

He could feel her smile in the darkness. "Sure thing, Zuzu."

Zuko winced. "Er—Katara?"

"Yes?"

"I, uh, kinda lied to you. My real name, it isn't Zuzu. It's Zuko."

There was a pause, before Katara spoke again. Her voice was hesitant, but warm. "You're welcome, Zuko."

* * *

><p>It was a half-day's journey to Caldera, but Zhao did not dare linger. Someone was, after all, awaiting him on the other side, and that someone was not a patient man.<p>

He descended from the small barge, paid the captain the fare, and walked past the docks, quickly but not so quickly as to draw undue attention. For once, Zhao was glad that he wore a hood. It hid not only his identity, but also the bandages around his head. Zuko…Zhao would make him pay one day. Soon.

The guards at the door to the gardens didn't so much as twitch when Zhao passed them, but he knew they could be lethal to stranger. The lord, after all, had not chosen his household guards for their placidity. If the lord commanded it, they would willing and gladly wield their flame and blade against themselves, and their parents and wives and children too. More loyal—and, perhaps, more dangerous—guards were seldom found the treacherous pit known as the Firelord's court.

The garden itself was beautiful. Lush green bushes bordered the pebble-set path, and bright orange-and-red firelilies grew up to waist height. A few of the flowers, Zhao noticed, had already been cut. He wondered who had been foolish enough to do so—maybe a new servant, or some spoiled visiting noblewoman. No matter; they would be punished accordingly.

He followed the path to a small stone gazebo. Unlike its more ostentatious brethren in the garden, who were made from marble and mahogany and rosewood, this one was tucked almost shyly behind several large trees, and simpler in design. The only sign that it was there was the masked guard at the foot of the gazebo. Like the others, he didn't so much as move when Zhao passed him, and entered the gazebo.

Within sat the man who was awaiting Zhao's arrival.

As much as it disgusted him to be courteous to the disgusting old man, Zhao bowed deeply. "My lord."

"Zhao." Ryuo barely spared him a glance before turning back to the golden scroll in his hands. "How good of you to come. I heard you ran into some trouble?"

"An escape," Zhao said shortly. "It is of little consequence."

"An escape," the old man echoed. "You must tell me the whole story one day, Zhao. One prisoner—and almost two dozen Yuyan Archers guarding him. All of them were incapitated or crippled. One, I hear, even died—blood loss, or so the report says. To be sure, the Yuyan are not the invincible force Colonel Shinu would like to present them as, but all the same, there must have been something special about your mysterious escapee. Take off your hood."

It wasn't a request. Ryuo's lips curled when he saw the bandages wrapped around Zhao's head, and not in a good way. "I hope this has taught you to be more careful in the future. You will need caution, and cunning, too; all the more unfortunate that you have neither. Now, kneel."

"Y—what?"

"I said, kneel." Ryuo stood up, but the disdain on his face remained. "You are receiving a royal decree, directly from the Firelord himself. Perhaps you have not been important enough in the scheme of things to receive such a command before, but even a thickheaded lout like you should realize that it would befit you to kneel under these circumstances."

Scowling, Zhao knelt. He could hear his blood pumping in his ears. Zhao might have thirty years and several stone of muscle on the shriveled Minister of Intelligence, but Ryuo still had the power to destroy him with a single word to the right people. He wondered if the guard he had seen at the gazebo would be close enough to prevent him from attacking the old man.

"By the royal order," Ryuo read, "of our Most Gracious Majesty, the Firelord Azulon of House of Amaterasu, son of the great Sozin, now passed: Zhao, of the House of Zhao, Commander of the 52th Fleet and loyal son of the Fire Nation and its Lord, shall hereafter be raised to the rank of Grand Admiral of the Fire Nation Royal Navy, with all the honors and privileges attached within, and shall be given command over all the officers and soldiers of said Navy until such a time that he is relieved of his honorable position. So has the Firelord in his infinite and eternal wisdom decreed, and so it shall be thus. Grand Admiral Zhao, do you accept this order?"

"I accept," Zhao said hastily. As he took over the precious scroll that elevated him to Grand Admiral, he felt he could scarcely believe his ears. Years of work, and plotting, and flattery, and Zhao had never expected this.

"Don't let this go to your puffed-up head." Ryuo regarded Zhao coldly. "If I hadn't asked the Firelord, you would be stuck as a Commander for life. See that you don't disappoint me too much." Swiftly for a man of his years, Ryuo swept past Zhao and, nodding curtly to the masked guard, departed.

When the old man's footsteps had long faded, Zhao stood up, and spat in the direction the Ryuo had left in. "'Don't disappoint me,'" he muttered. "'Don't let this go to your head.' Who do you think you are? Who do you think _I _am?" Zhao smiled cruelly. "You'll get your due one day, old man. Like father, like son."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: <strong>No excuses, except that the plot is getting more and more complicated and I've had a miserable few months...or maybe it's been more than a few months. Anyhow, because the plot is getting too complicated and going too slow (the coups will never happen at the rate I've been writing at! *hint, hint*), I've decided to cap Book 1 at 13 chapters, which means that Book 1 will be ending after two more updates. Book 2 is where things are really going to get heated up.

And a big thank you to all of my reviewers, new and old, since last time! Please keep reviewing; I really appreciate every bit of feedback I get!


End file.
